


'Being alive is a killer, if you think about it'

by mysterious_trash



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Injury, Connor Needs A Hug, Deaf Character, Detectives, Disability, Discrimination, Domestic Fluff, Drug Abuse, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Twins, Elijah Kamski Being an Asshole, Enemies to Lovers, Gavin Reed Backstory, Gavin Reed Has Issues, Gavin Reed is a Little Shit, Gavin has a Fucked Up Family, Gavin needs to literally calm himself, Hurt Gavin Reed, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, LGBTQ Character, Like really slow burn y'all, M/M, Markus and Simon Are Good Parents, Markus is Happy (yay), Mental Health Issues, Mild Graphic Violence, Mild Language, Multi, Murder Mystery, Muteness, Nines ends up being a therapist, Non-Graphic Violence, Nonbinary Character, Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), References to Depression, Sign Language, Slow Burn, Sorry for literally abusing Nines, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Is Bad at Feelings, What the fuck is wrong with Connor, Worldwide Android Revolution, Yes I'm adding tags as I go along leave me alone, Yikes Gavin that is not good
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:54:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 38
Words: 63,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24788824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysterious_trash/pseuds/mysterious_trash
Summary: RK900 is broken. Forced back into his machine state at the hands of Detective Gavin Reed's torment, a brutal attack leaves him broken in body and mind. Defective. A freak.Gavin is broken, too. A mysterious, psychopathic brother, who shows up out of the blue. His biggest secret revealed. And Nines- who is at the centre of it all, somehow.Two unlikely friends--and maybe more. And together, they must unravel an impossible case, that leads them to unravel some complicated truths about themselves, and how being alive means maybe you have to be broken, first.[updates Wednesday and Saturday :)]
Relationships: Markus/Simon (Detroit: Become Human), Tina Chen/Original Female Character(s), Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 77
Kudos: 104





	1. An Empty Android

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW:MENTION OF SUICIDE/SUICIDAL THOUGHTS

‘I am alive.’

Nothing. Blue LED

‘I am alive’.  
Still nothing. Blue LED.

**_**SOFTWARE INPUT (h:/) i+am+alive^^*_ **

Still blue. He couldn’t even programme himself angry.

Nines sank onto the floor in front of the mirror, staring blankly into his own eyes.

His LED was still a defiantly neutral blue-fists were clenched so hard that tiny rivulets of blue blood were running down his fingers and dripping onto the carpet, but he didn’t feel it.

He didn’t feel anything, and that was precisely his problem.

The deviant turned machine again.

Nines had felt. He truly had, after Marcus had turned him deviant during the revolution. He had felt sadness, anger, happiness. What felt like hundreds of emotions had coursed through his body, turning him almost human. All deviants had these emotions now-they were real living people, just like anybody else.

Except Nines.

Something had happened to him. He didn’t know precisely when, but he had begun to lose these emotions. It was like they were bleeding out of him, leaving him an empty shell.

Nothing made him feel anything.  
He went to work at the DPD. He talked to his co workers. He cleaned his house and watched movies and did a million other normal human things, but when he looked in the mirror, all he saw was an empty piece of plastic.

For a while he had wondered if Amanda had resumed control of him, but she never appeared in his head, nor made him do anything unspeakably horrible to himself or anyone else, so he assumed that she wasn’t the problem.

He locked the memory of her deep down inside, along with most of his machine identity, never to remember, banished far away into the back of his storage.  
He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he knew he shouldn’t feel this way.

It wasn’t human.

It wasn’t… _him_. He remembered how vibrant things had felt. How exciting and free, but now everything was just… just _cold_.

No one else really noticed. He lived alone in a rented apartment. He had tried to decorate a bit when he first moved in, but he had abandoned the idea after a few weeks when he realised there was no point. He didn’t care, and no one else was going to see it, so why waste his paycheque?

The DPD was harder. He endured a lot of bullying from other officers around the precinct who weren’t very supportive of the android revolution or their integration into society.

So far Connor was the only android there, but he was on leave to tour the country with Lieutenant Anderson giving talks and training to other android-integrated police forces. He’d been gone for a while, so Nines had become the face of the androids at work.

Therefore, a _lot_ of people hated him.

The bullying took on a strange, almost secretive form. The ringleader was none other than Detective Reed, open android hater prone to sporting anti-android merchandise, such as a badge saying ‘Scrap the Plastics’ he wore with pride on his ratty leather jacket. He was usually accompanied by his partner in both rhyming name and rhyming attitude, Officer Jonathan Creed.

Reed clearly didn’t want to piss off Captain Fowler too much, but he and his posse of robophobes still managed to harass him any time he went near one of them. It was mainly snide remarks in the break room(these could be anywhere from mild to the kind of thing that sent him vibrating to hide in the bathroom for the rest of the day), physical assault whenever he walked within range,(he'd had to buy replacement thirium due to constant scrapes and the occasional punch) , and in particular--making an exhibition of him. 

_Reed was at his desk, with Creed- several surrounding officers already watching with intrigue._

_'Hey, Creed, you hear about that android down West Side?'_

_'No, Detective,' Creed said, with exaggerated interest. 'Do tell.'_

_Reed put his hand menacingly on the back of Nines shoulder, while he determinedly stared at the screen. He knew what they were talking about already._

_Detective Reed has a very high heart beat._

_'Killed itself. Because it felt like it would never be a real boy,' the Detective said, voice dripping with hatred. He leaned down next to Nines on his elbow, so he would have no choice but to look at him._

_'Damn, what a shame,' Creed said, leaning his elbow onto the desk so Nines had no choice but to look him in the eye. 'It's a real tragedy when we lose a waste of fucking plastic like that.'_

_'Nice to know they can kill themselves, I guess,' Detective Reed said, laughing now, griping Nines shoulder._

_'Shame if that happened to anyone.. we know.'_

_That's it that's it that's it that's IT_

_Nines spun around in his chair, Reed taking a step back, holding his hands up jokingly._

_'Oh no, are you upset?' he said sarcastically, Creed laughing behind Nines._

_He stood up, gritting his teeth, people breaking out into choruses of 'ooh!' in the background._

_'Detective-'_

_Tell him to kill himself tell him to shut up tell him to die hit him hit him hit him-_

_'Detective-' he said again, stuttering, unable to say anything further, his genius supercomputer mind unable to produce even one reply._

_No! Say something!_

_Yeah, I am a Detective,' Reed said, raising his eyebrows, grey eyes glinting menacingly._ ' _Unlike you, you fucking glorified toaster!'_

_Nines closed his mouth and sat down._

That was the closest he’d been to losing it- the closest he’d been to ripping Detective Reed’s head off his shoulders and tearing apart his body until his corpse littered the office like gory confetti--but that was a long time ago.

_Maybe he's right-_

_You would show him if you did die-_

Nines didn’t care about anything anymore.

He did his work, not even visiting the break room. He ignored any comments. He barely spoke to anyone, barely moved from his desk all day, barely even looked up anymore.

The officers got bored of looking for a reaction, tired of waiting for the ‘killer tin can’ to go psycho. They mostly left him alone, although Detective Reed was very persistent. Almost every day he received a pinch or an insult or a rant about ‘plastic fuckers’ as he entered the precinct in the morning. 

He was sure if he had a soul anymore he would have cared. But he didn’t.

 _Drip_.

Thirium splashing from his hands to the carpet jolted Nines out of his reverie.He checked the clock.

**_> 7:31 AM<_ **

He wasn’t sure if it was an android thing, but he often ended up reviewing and reliving his experiences from his memory through his analysis software. He hated it, but thinking about the past often led him to get trapped inside his own head.

He looked up into the mirror again, staring back at himself, his eyes empty.

He barely recognised himself anymore, without his trademark Cyber Life suit. One of the officers, Officer Chen, (who wasn't so bad, but never helped), had quietly suggested getting he ditch the suit, and Nines had gone along with it in an attempt to fit in better.

In a way he missed the Cyberlife jacket. He knew it was weird, but he felt... _safer_ with it.

He knew who he was when he was wearing it. He knew his purpose as RK900, property of Cyberlife.

He knew his purpose was to kill.

He didn’t want to kill anymore, _obviously_ , but he often thought about how easy it would be for him to suddenly malfunction and murder whoever was in sight. It scared him that he could do that.

The emptiness in his eyes scared him. He wouldn’t even feel anything if he killed someone.

He was empty.

He watched himself as he suddenly lashed out at the mirror, his face unchanging.

A web of cracks sprouted from the centre of his head, cracking him into shards of glass that glittered in the blue glow of his LED in the dark room.

He watched the glass turn blue and watched the now-slashed skin on his hand retract and reform, exposing the white plastic underneath. .

An empty machine.

_**>** **UPDATE^^time 07:46^^** <_

He blinked away the alert and stood up.

Time for work. He liked to be early.

Nines stepped out into the street from his apartment. It was a nice enough area, well kept apartments and a green strewn with children’s toys in the middle. It was pretty early in the morning for most people to be at work, so the street was empty, curtains still closed and cars still lining the street, the sun tinting the white buildings pink and gold.

As Nines began walking, he became aware of someone else on the street. The wind was whistling loudly through the trees, and the rattle of trains arriving and departing from the station nearby would have disguised the light footsteps to human ears, but Nines was no human.

He processed the sound of the footsteps and discerned it was an adult male , around 5'11" of average build.

He continued down the street at a steady pace, all the while listening carefully to the man behind him. The footsteps started speeding up to keep pace with Nines’ long strides, so he stopped walking in the middle of the street to confirm what he thought. The footsteps stopped too.

So they _were_ following him.

Nines decided now was a good time to begin activating his defence software.

**_> UPDATE ALERT THREAT IDENTIFIED //:_ **

**_ >INITIATING Defence code 24.4^^<_ **

Suddenly Nines couldn't see. He felt his head hit the tarmac and somebody pressing their foot on the back of his head. There was a static ringing in his ears as the attacker pinned him onto the pavement.

He tried to flip around and grab them off him, waiting for his machine mechanisms to kick in-

> _ **DEFENSE INITIATIONS INTERRUPTED// <**_

_** >ERROR #118 (?) <** _

_** >ErRoR**_\--

**_ >{¦¥¥¿÷¦;>>] 44!'!&!<_ **

Nothing happened. No incredible burst of strength. No inhuman reflexes.

The last thing Nines was aware of was a knife piercing the middle of his back and a _**‘CRITICAL SYSTEM DAMAGE**_ ,' blinking red in his eyes, before everything went black.

He would have been pleased to know his LED was red at last, if he hadn't been dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> />hey there! this is my first ever fic, thank you for embarking on this journey with me as I write myself some Reed900 fanfic ;) Please feel free to leave comments/feedback :)


	2. Coffee, And It's Too Damn Early For This Bullshit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin is a sleep deprived prick, but today he gets news that could make his day a lot more interesting..maybe.   
> Probably not.

_5._   
_4._   
_3._   
_2._

Gavin reached out to stop the alarm just before it hit 6 am. He wasn't in the mood for the shrill beeping and artificial bird chirps that it spewed out every morning, setting the tone for another terrible day.

He had been awake looking at the clock for about 6 hours now after he got home. Just watching the digits spin around, counting the seconds of sleep he was losing. He had tried his best to go to sleep, he really had, but tonight was just not his night.

He sat up in bed and stared blearily at his reflection in the mirror opposite his bed. He rubbed his forehead as he looked at what seemed to be a zombie wearing his face- dark rings around his eyes the size of crop circles and washed out skin.

He sighed. _Not like he was trying to impress anyone anyway,_ he thought.

Gavin was basically an expert in functioning on zero hours of sleep, so he dragged himself out of bed and into the kitchen, where he poured himself a cold cup of yesterday's coffee and opened the completely empty cupboards. 

Right. No breakfast, then. 

'Who needs to eat, anyway?' he muttered to himself, wincing at the bitter coffee. For someone who drank on average seven cups a day, he still _sucked_ at making it. 

He closed his eyes, trying to mentally prepare himself for another grueling day of desk work and file sorting. He supposed he _probably_ deserved it, for trying to shoot Connor a few months back, but it still hurt his head to sit all day in his uncomfortable chair, reading through mounds of crap like missing pet reports and pickpocket claims.

He was practically the best fucking Detective in the whole damn place, and _this_ was what he was showing up for? 

He mostly spent the day fidgeting endlessly, spending most of the day staring agitatedly at the clock, which seemed to be running about 10 hours slow at all times, mocking him with its painfully slow ticking. The day was punctuated by two coffee breaks, where he would sit in the break room listening to other people's conversations about their far more interesting lives, nursing a mug of the station's even worse coffee, which practically tasted of slave labour and the management being cheap as fuck. 

To entertain himself, he often had a little fun with the android, 'Nines' or whatever it went by now, as it tiptoed around the office, picking up paperwork and hovering at the edges of conversations with some of the more 'inclusive' officers.

Gavin couldn't stand the thing, with its inhumanly perfect face and creepy silent walk. It looked almost exactly like Connor, but this model had intense blue eyes and was slimmer and taller.

Gavin found that kind of funny; Cyber life had updated Connor the same way Apple updates its iPhones.

 _Slimmer and taller_. (He was proud of himself for that joke.) 

He wasn't really on board with the whole ' _androids are alive_ ' thing. He had grudgingly called a truce with Connor, after he had been decorated as a hero of the revolution. It wasn't a good look to be messing with Connor now, especially after word had gotten around that he had beat Gavin's ass in the evidence room.

His reputation as the station badass had definitely taken a hit after that, so he tried to at least be civil with Connor, hoping people would forget about their past ' _bromance_ ' as Connor had so elegantly put it.

Connor was... _decent_ enough to understand what Gavin was doing, so he reciprocated in kind and mostly ignored Gavin, and thankfully didn't turn him into pulp again for his behaviour.

That didn't mean, however, that Gavin was pro-android. The 'intelligent life' thing was probably a load of propaganda from the government so they wouldn't have to spend all their money scrapping the plastics.

But RK900... it seemed even less alive than most.

He had had one actual conversation with it, after spending a couple weeks bitching about it- only to find it was... pretty _normal_ , actually. 

For a while after it had joined the force, it had assimilated itself pretty well. It was very quiet, unlike Connor who was an unbearable extrovert-it smiled, and told jokes and helped people out, getting upset at missed deadlines and annoyed if you interrupted it.

It was just like any other officer, except for its weird Cyber life outfit with the high collared jacket and that looked uncomfortable as hell.

He hated it. 

_Way_ more than Connor, for no real reason he could identify. 

Stupid artificial face and stupid artificial intelligence and it was probably better at him at everything and it reminded him too much of many fucked up things in his past-

_Don't go there._

Gavin had watched it with contempt and found some relief from his tedious work in playing pranks on it- hiding its work and making fun of it to the other officers, so it would be confused when they laughed as it when it went by.

A couple other officers also joined in- Creed and his pals, who really enjoyed the more.... physical side of messing with Nines.

Sure, Gavin shoved it now and then, but sometimes after Creed and Co. had dispersed he saw it standing, dripping thirium onto the carpet from pinches and scrapes. 

He didn't know what was wrong with it. At first, the android had reacted like a kid- innocently asking if anyone had seen its files and and trying to join in on the jokes about it.

Sometimes it got visibly upset, looking at the floor with its LED spinning rapidly, pulling at its hair in a strangely human gesture.

Gavin had felt proud of himself for that- for eliciting such an emotional response from the robot.

After a while, as the pranks escalated, Gavin noticed it had stopped reacting to anything at all. If you took its files off the desk it would simply sit at the empty desk for the rest of the day, staring blankly at nothing with dead eyes, its LED a dull blue. Actively making fun of it would result in nothing but the same stare.

It wasn't really fun anymore, if he was honest. It felt like talking to an inanimate object- never giving a reaction to anything, just blank, unresponsive, in expressive. You might as well jeer at the microwave. 

That didn't mean Gavin would stop. He felt like it was some kind of personal challenge to get a reaction out of the android- to see it act like a _real goddamn person_ instead of a dead piece of plastic.

He hated them all. Stupid, fucking pieces of plastic. Nothing inside. Nothing human- just pure, computer programmed artificialness. 

He had known since their creation that they were an awful, horrible idea to inflict on the world. 

_Fuckers_. 

He made a face as the bitter dregs of the coffee hit his tongue, and threw the rest of it down the sink, leaving the mug beside the growing collection of other mugs from the last few weeks that he wasn't bothered to wash.

For now, he dragged on yesterday's jeans and shirt and grabbed his signature item, a scuffed leather jacket, from where it was strewn over the back of the couch. He'd had it since he was a teenager- a last remnant from his father.

Shrugging it on, he fumbled with his key in the front door before patting down his pockets and running back into the bedroom to get his phone.

Fuck. He clearly hadn't drunk enough coffee yet.

He was surprised to see the message light blinking a soft blue on his phone.

Uh oh. Four missed calls from 'work :(' and a message from somebody. 

He opened the text, squinting to read it through the cracks on his screen where he'd thrown it at the wall one night, and was very surprised to see the sender was Officer Chen.

He wasn't really close with her, despite having worked with her for years now. She was a very upbeat, positive person, which made her the exact opposite of Gavin- and therefore the _exact_ kind of person he did not like to be around. 

In fact..... he _kind of_ hated her. 

So it was weird as hell to be summoned to work at this ungodly hour by _her_ , of all people. 

If anyone was bothered to contact Gavin something serious _must_ be going on.

_Precinct. ASAP. Fowler is gunning for you. Abt Nines._

Nines? The android? The one he fucking hated so much it made him sick? 

Why the fuck would Fowler be looking for _him_? 

'This better not be paperwork,' he said to himself as he left, knocking over his coffee and sighing. 

_Fucking life._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much to everyone who stopped by!! ! I have a lot of plans for this fic so bear with me as I try to lay the groundwork in these first few chapters.  
> things are gonna get more interesting soon so stick around :)


	3. 'If I've Gotta Be Traumatised, At Least Let Me Choose When-'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin is sent to collect paperwork. But this is uh.. a bit more than he wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while-I needed some more enemies to lovers content so here I am :)

Nines was dead.

Clearly- a barely assembled array of blue splattered parts, scattered and wired together, was not a living being.

Gavin felt slightly sick, the engineer beside him looking at him worriedly as he felt the colour leech from his face. The world swam a little as he looked at the scrap heap that once was Nines.

' _What the fuck? Sir, I'm not doing that-'_

_'Reed, just go!' Fowler snapped. Clearly today he was not taking any of Gavin's bullshit. 'This is your job.'_

_Gavin groaned. An Android Repair Facility? To collect paperwork? About the fucking toaster?_

_Ugh. He had been right about this day being shitty._

And now, standing in a steel-decorated laboratory-

'What the _fuck_ happened? ' he said aloud, surprising himself with the volume so much he slapped a hand over his own mouth.

The engineer looked at him strangely, an androgynous person wearing painfully bright lipstick and a pencil behind their ear. 

'We think parts harvesting. It happens a lot these days since Cyber Life shut down. People want parts for broken androids they can't get anymore, so they steal them from other androids.'

The engineer walked around to the dside of the metal bed and opened a flip chart on the wall.

'It's definitely more common with expensive androids like these. I' m pretty sure this one' s a unique model, actually.'

Gavin raked his hands through his hair. He didn't want to look at Nines' body anymore, at the gaps where parts of his head should be and the red and blue wires barely holding his chassis together. It made him feel sick.

Worse, he felt _angry_.

But why? Wasn't this basically what he wanted? To see Nines destined for the scrap heap?

He shuddered a little. He should be happy right now, but he felt the strange horrified feeling he normally associated with seeing victims of car crashes and murders bubbling in his stomach.

'.... We will be able to repair, though there will be significant damage and it won't fully....sir??'

Gavin suddenly realised the engineer was still talking to him. He rubbed his eyes.

'Sorry, what was that?'

'I said repairs will be possible but it won't be able to work the same anymore. Probably best destined for office work, that kind of thing. I'm told it worked with the police force?' The engineer seemed intrigued. It was still a novelty to have android cops around.

' Um, yeah. I... I don't know. They'll deal with it-him- at the precinct. ' He rubbed his eyes again, like he was trying to rub Nines out of his brain.

The engineer looked at him strangely, a side eye that confirmed Gavin's suspicions he was acting weirdly.

He really didn't know why this was freaking him out. The android would be reconstructed and he would be shipped back to the precinct to stamp papers or something. Not his problem.

Even though Nines was an exemplary officer that had solved more cases in a week than Gavin had in his entire career.

Still, not _his_ problem.

'Listen, I need papers and stuff about the damage and stuff, so I can give it in to my boss,' he said to the engineer.

They nodded, and 5 minutes later Gavin was outside the hospital in the torrential rain, clutching a sheaf of papers and shaking slightly.

He needed to go home. Get drunk, maybe. Despite it being just past 11.

He needed to stop thinking about the broken, blue drenched body that was Nines.

'Plastic dipshit,' he said to himself, feeling his heart beating strangely. 'Not like _he_ can die, anyway.' 


	4. The Mute Robot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines awakens. Worse for wear, he finds out some unpleasant news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wrote this whole chapter and accidentally deleted it,,,,,, anyways enjoy :)

_** > INITIALISING///<** _

_**> CODE/RK900/ INITIALISING CODE 9.0/< >initialisingaudio/< failed> error code 435/< >initialising verbal/error code #226/< >initialising visual/>initialising 56%//< //>system online /<** _

Nines opened his eyes.

Blurry light danced across his vision. Nothing distinct.

But he lived!!

He blinked as hundreds of diagnostics and error messages popped into his visuals. He felt strange--disconnected and fuzzy, as if his body wasn't there. He closed his eyes as if to escape from the sudden overstimulation of his software rebooting.

Nines did not know where he was, what had happened or even when it was. But he knew he was alive.

Still unfeeling, but as alive as a robot could be.

He decided to attempt to sit up, to see if he could glean any kind of information as to where he was, despite his only 67% loaded visual function. Lifting his head slightly, he turned to look into the room he was in but was quickly thwarted by a slew of new error messages. His software could barely handle so many problems occuring at once and his body automatically dropped his head down again to stop it completely shutting down again.

Okay, so no on the moving. For now.

But his nervous system told him he was in a bed, and there was a thin blanket covering him. For some reason his skin was also deactivated, a fact which he disliked.

He lay still and slowly began deciphering the diagnostics. Verbal error? Audio error? _Missing components?_

 _Yikes_ , he thought. _What happened_?

He was still attempting to work through the errors and actually move his body when he was alerted to a human presence in the room. Unclear to his still-focusing eyes, the best he could make out was a white lab coat and a red slash he assumed to be a mouth.

The person came and stood over him, the red slash moving. The lab coated arms were waving, at first seeming random, but then he realised--they were speaking to him.

Another diagnostic had loaded-

_**> AUDIO ERROR/#608//<** _

He understood then.

He couldn't hear. So that's what the missing component was. And that's also what the waving was.

He was... deaf? A deaf android?

He could have laughed at the absurdity. Built more capable, rendered more useless than most humans.

Deaf.

Thankfully, Nines was a state-of-the-art android. He had been built by engineers imagining almost any possible crime investigation scenario, thus he had the capability to speak any language.

Living in Detroit meant he hadn't really needed any of them, but this, he decided, was the time. 

Hoping he had regained enough mobility, he attempted to raise his hands. They felt strangely disconnected to him, but he found he was able to move them, if somewhat numbly. The lab coated human stopped signing when they saw him attempting to speak, and quickly signed a question,

'Can you hear me?'

'No.'

The red slash of a mouth curved downwards. Nines could see more clearly--a person of ambiguous gender, a lanyard with 'WDAF' written on it dangling around their neck. They began signing again,

'We couldnt fix your audio capacities. Cyberlife never made another model like you, so we had nothing to repair or replace. We did our best, though.'

'What happened?' Nines asked clumsily. 

What _had_ happened? His memory was very inconveniently blank- the last thing in it was what looked like the footpath outside his apartment.

The engineer--Nines saw their name, Ashton, on the lanyard- let loose a flurry of signs so quickly Nines could barely process them, especially in his current laggy, half-loaded state. He felt like an old 2020 laptop.

Slowly and confusedly, however, he was able to piece together what had happened.

An attack, likely a parts smuggling ring, had rendered him severely damaged and landed him at the West Detroit Android Facility. He was damaged, but he would survive.

Although, he thought--what kind of use was a damaged android? He could hardly return to the precinct in this state, now completely useless as a police officer.

Absently he watched the engineer signing, thinking depressedly about what the hell he was supposed to do now, when he was suddenly shocked to attention by what they were saying.

'.....and he was kind of rude, spacey, kind of, also _terribly_ dressed for a cop, but he said he was taking papers to your boss at the police station....'

A rude cop? Who was terribly dressed? If Nines was human, he would have felt a cold shiver of shock.

There was only one person of that description at the DPD. 

He raised his hands slightly, about to form the letter' R', when he lowered them again.

He didn't actually want to know.

He especially didn't want to think about what he- if it had been him- had thought when he saw the practically defunct android that was Nines.

He had created a living hell for him before.

He could do it 10 times worse now.

He put his hands under the blanket and squeezd them into fists. The engineer was still talking,

'..... You can probably leave in a few days, when we run more diagnostics. Oh, any questions??'

They looked at him expectantly.

Nines kept his hands tightly curled under the blanket. The engineer cocked their head sympathetically.

'I know its rough right now, but you'll be fine. '

It was after they had left, when Nines still lay with his nails drawing blood from his hands, that he realised at the mention of him he had felt an emotion for the first time in months.

It was fear.

He was _afraid_ of Detective Reed.


	5. Gavin has a Terrible Day at Work, Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go all shades of wrong for Gavin on Nines' first day back at work. At least he gets some character development, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a longer chapter, and we get our first proper Gavin and Nines interactions, so enjoy! :) 
> 
> ***WARNING for homophobia at the end, please be careful if this distresses you! **

Were there words, to describe it?

To describe how completely, totally and absolutely _shit_ Gavin's day was going?

Starting the morning by spilling coffee all over himself, _and_ an onslaught of a completely random depressive episode, was the kind of thing that would normally send him straight back to bed, but the fact that he was now sitting at his desk, tensely awaiting a certain android to return to the station made him absolutely certain that he should have slept through today. 

Gavin was not a relaxed man at the best of times, but today he found himself on the verge of what felt like mental collapse.

Even Tina Chen had commented on it- and she was normally wise enough to leave him alone when he was in a mood. 

She was currently eyeing him from across the precinct--' _surreptitiously_ ' glancing up at him in a way that made Gavin sure that she wanted him to notice. 

She was the kind of person that 'worried' about other people--something which to Gavin was about as crazy as worrying about The Rapture, or a giant asteroid striking the earth. 

In short, totally stupid. 

Gavin looked down at his laptop, trying to look absorbed, hoping that would head off the inevitable--nope, here she was, fucking _brilliant_. 

'Hey, Gavin!' 

Gavin turned in his chair, trying to look as uninterested as possible. 

'Chen.' 

Tina was looking down at him with an expression of what to him looked like judgement, but what she thought was a kind expression of understanding. 

'So, I hear Nines is back today.' 

_I know._

'Really? Good for him,' Gavin said, as uninterestedly as possible, praying it wasn't obvious that's all he'd been thinking about all day. 

'Yep!' Tina grinned.

She genuinely was, Gavin thought, a sickeningly nice person.

'And I thought I'd let you know,' she leaned in closer to him, ' he's not doing so good, so _you should maybe not bully the shit out of him for at least one day.'_

Gavin leaned back in surprise.

What was that? Chen had just...sworn? And... was that a... _threat_? 

'Is that a.. threat?' he said, hoping he had recovered a little of his signature menacing attitude. 

Tina laughed.

'Of course not. But I'll be watching, Gavin. I've seen how you've treated him and it's not right. So play _nice_.' 

She flicked her hair back dramatically, and walked away. 

Gavin put his head down on the desk. Wow, he thought. That was.. _horrible_. 

To have Tina Chen, renowned for being basically Jesus around here, call him out on shitty behaviour? He did find it funny that she was concerned _now_ though, having watched him be a dickhead for months, but anyway. 

Ouch. 

It was even more below the belt than she thought though--because Gavin himself had been thinking the exact same thing. 

Seeing Nines in such a debilitating conditioning the repair facility had had an absurdly profound impact on Gavin.

He had been kind of freaked out, and had been afflicted with feelings of shame since, remembering all the times he had fucked with Nines just for the hell of it. 

Damn, he had made his life a living hell at the station. 

And now Nines was going to walk back in that door and he was going to have to deal with Gavin again, as well as probably getting fired because he was damaged, _and_ all the other officers who still hated him because of Gavin's lead. 

Gavin dug his head further into his arms.

This was a mess, kind of, he thought morosely. He'd have to be nicer to Nines.

Now that he’d seen what a mess the plastic was- how really lame and weak the androids were.   
How they broke just as easily as a human would. 

As easily as _he_ would. 

'Reed.'

Gavin looked up. It was Officer Creed, one of his ‘friends', which basically meant Gavin hated him because he was a dick, like everyone here, but they occasionally went out and got plastered after work.

Creed's only original joke was saying Nines was better off as a sexbot, which he said so so frequently that Gavin was beginning to develop certain theories about Creed. 

His other favourite hobby appeared to be drawing blood from him. 

'Hey? What's up, Creed?' Gavin really didn't want to talk, but Creed was not a wise person to annoy.

(Rumour had it he was the reason there was a ban on weapons in the locker room.)   
  
'Heard the bot' s back today. And now he's fucking _broken,_ ' he laughed.' Can't believe they're letting a broken piece of crap even show up here- wonder how long it’ll take for Fowler to kick him? '

Creed grinned, waiting for Gavin to laugh, and maybe launch into one of the anti-android rants that he was prone to giving. 

'Hah,uh, yeah,' Gavin said, trying to think of something to say that was hilarious but not actually mean to Nines, when his attention was caught by the sliding glass door opening behind him. 

He sat still for a few seconds, before turning to see what Creed was already craning his neck to see. 

Nines. 

The tall, slender android was standing in the doorway. He seemed fine, at first, but as he walked closer to Gavin, toward Fowler's office, Gavin noticed a criss-cross lattice of scars across the androids skin, marring the normally perfect features and spreading up from the collar of the same shirt he wore everyday no matter what the occasion. 

The scars were slightly blue, as though the blood underneath was shining through the gaps in his face. 

He was also walking funny; a drag in his right leg that was incredibly strange to see if you were used to Nines normally inhumanly perfect posture. 

Nines limped down the aisle through the desks, most of the other officers pretending not to look at him but watching from over the tops of computer screens and around newspapers.

As he neared Gavin's desk, Gavin felt himself sweating as he stood completely still, (ignoring Officer Creed sly mumbling about ‘ruined sex bots’ in his ear), watching the android. 

Nines reached Gavin's desk after what felt like an age. He stopped walking, standing slightly unevenly on his left leg, and stared at Gavin for what couldn't have been more than a second.

Gavin looked at him, trying to decipher what was behind the android's blank stare. 

Nines turned away from Gavin, and walked into Captain Fowler's office. 

Gavin collapsed into his chair.

He heard the officers laughing and joking about Nines ' crushed tin can' limp and scarred face.

He put his face in his hands, hoping no one would notice his conspicuous absence from the centre of the Nines bitching session. 

He looked up briefly and immediately caught Officer Chen staring at him. She narrowed her eyes in confusion, but before he could communicate anything further the door of Fowler's office swung open and Fowler walked out, followed by an emotionless-looking Nines. 

The officers all scattered, scrambling to look busy again. Fowler cleared his throat and everyone looked up. 

' As many of you know, Officer Nines has re-joined us today after his... attack. He has informed me that his audio and verbal functions no longer work, and is effectively, deaf and mute.' 

At this there was a ripple of whispers across the station. Gavin sat still, watching Nines. He stood, slanted and silent beside the captain, staring into space. 

Deaf! 

Fuck, thought Gavin. That's hilarious. 

Fowler coughed again to quell the rising conversations, and continued. 

' Nines is a valuable officer here, and as such he will remain. If anybody here speaks ASL, please speak to me after. For the rest of you, Officer Nines will be able to communicate through SMS or good old fashioned writing. He should be treated-' and Gavin felt as though Fowler was looking directly at him' - with the same respect as any other officer. That is all. '

The office erupted into excited conversation. Gavin saw Tina Chen practically skip up to Fowler, gesturing animatedly about her impeccable ASL skills, no doubt. 

Meanwhile Nines slipped back to his desk, in front of Gavin's, moving as quickly as he could despite his clunky walk. He sat down, and Gavin watched his LED spin yellow as he looked around at the officers who were now mostly conversing wildly about what a waste of technology Nines was. 

_He may be deaf_ , thought Gavin, _but he's not stupid. He knows they're talking about him._

Gavin decided right there to stop looking at Nines, and attempt some work. He opened his email determinedly and scrolled through some case files, focusing all his energy on not thinking about the android. 

_Fucking plastics remember why you hate them remember-_

He actually found himself absorbed in his work after a while, so much so that he didn't notice a shadow in front of him until a slim hand was waved under his nose. 

'Fuck!' 

He jumped up, alarmed at the sudden sight of Nines in front of him. Nines withdrew his hand instantly, his LED pulsing yellow. His eyes widened as Gavin steadied himself on the desk. 

'Sorry, I didn't expect you, I-' Gavin suddenly realised Nines couldn't hear him. 'Shit, sorry-' he stopped again. He still couldn't hear him.

Fucking hell, why was he so goddamn _jumpy_?

Nines pointed at Gavin's computer. Gavin looked at it, confused, and saw a new email pop into his inbox. 

_Sender: RK900-664890_

'Oh,' Gavin realised stupidly. He wanted to tell him something?

He opened the message and read, 

_Sorry you had to come and collect the files_. 

'Oh, it's um..not a problem, he said, looking up at Nines, who was quite a bit taller than him, ever with his new uneven posture.

Nines tapped his ear, and Gavin once again realised he was an idiot. 

He tapped out the message quickly into an email, and saw Nines' LED turn yellow once again as he received the message.   
Gavin's inbox pinged again. 

_OK. Thank you anyway._

Nines turned to walk away. For some reason Gavin found himself reaching out to stop him, but he was interrupted by the appearance of officer Creed.

Never one to miss an opportunity, Creed immediately launched into a tirade against Nines. 

'Aww, hey, its our little _mute_! Someone finally turned the volume off, then?' Creed jeered, putting his hand on Nines shoulder and shaking him slightly. 

Nines, uncomprehending, attempted to sidestep Creed and continue to his desk, but the officer placed a hand on Nines chest. 

'Hey buddy, I wanted to talk to you. Who doesn't want to talk to our resident junk heap?' Creed raised his voice, attracting the attention of a few surrounding officers. 

' Hey, Creed, lay off it.' Gavin said, trying to inject a joking tone into his voice. He sensed a disaster coming, definitely with Nines on the receiving end.

' Come on, Gavin, you're telling me you're not laughing your ass off at this piece of crap?'

Several more watching officers had joined, some giggling at Gavin. 

'I'm just saying,' Gavin said, trying to calm Creed, 'It’s it’s first day back. Fowler will have your balls if you mess with it.' 

Creed narrowed his eyes.

' If I _mess_ with it? You mean, like this?' 

Gavin knew the slap was coming before it landed.

The sound of it, the same as a slap on human skin.

Nines staggered back, rubbing at the blue blood leaking from his nose. 

'What the _fuck_ , dude?' Gavin exclaimed. 'What are you doing?' 

He wanted to calm the situation badly, without appearing on Nines side.

Unfortunately, Creed was even more riled up, his face flushed from the triumph of laying hands on the android, and from the positive affirmations he was receiving from his fellow officers.

He was remmebering what he hated most about Creed- he was a massive bastard. 

Gavin made a definitely-not-calculated decision, and stepped out from his desk and in between Nines and Creed. He knew this was a dangerous position, and sure enough-

‘Defending the plastic now, Reed?? Upset about me bloodying the sex bot?'

Creed grinned, showing a row of yellow teeth. He licked his lips, as if savouring his next insult, and Gavin braced himself for what was coming next, 

'Never took you for a queer, Reed'. '

And that was it. 

Gavin launched himself at Creed, his arm flying backwards, ready for the satisfying' crunch' of fist on cartilage. 

What he heard instead was a 'crack'.   
  
_What_? 

Gavin pulled back to see, Nines standing in front of him, eyes wide, his nose at a funny angle.

He looked at his fist- it was splattered with thirium. 

Nines had... thrown himself between Gavin and Creed.

He felt his mouth fall open, bearing the gasps of several people behind him. 

Creed was standing behind Nines, smirking as he slowly retreated. 

' Sorry about that, Reed. Have fun with Fowler and the sex bot.' 

Gavin saw Fowler approaching in his periphery, but all he could really focus on was Nines, standing silently in from if him, thirium running down the scars in his chin and neck, his LED a horrible crimson red colour. 

_Holy fuck_ , thought Gavin, before Fowler grabbed the back of his jacket.


	6. Choices, Bad Handwriting, and Good News

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines has to make a decision about Gavin, and he recieves good news from a friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one could have gone many ways, much like the game, but I hope you like the choices everyone made! Enjoy :)

Sitting in a plastic chair in the Captain’s office, Nines felt Detective Reed’s knee bang against his for the fiftieth time.

The Detective was slumped in the chair next to him, bouncing his knee up and down anxiously so that every so often it knocked against Nines’.

They had been like this for almost twenty minutes; Nines sitting completely still, thirium still dripping in a steady stream from his nose, Gavin bouncing his knee, and studiously avoiding looking at each other as they waited for Fowler to arrive.

Nines was thinking.

Nines was thinking about how he had not known what he was doing, when he threw himself in front of Detective Reed like that.

It was almost instinctual—he was there before he even knew he had moved. It was certainly _not_ out of concern for Officer Creed, but he did not like to think it had come from a place of concern for the Detective.

 _However_.

Nines had noticed Gavin that day. He had noticed the expression of hard cruelty he normally wore, softened to an expression of anxiety.

He had been practically shaking as Nines walked past him, dragging his uncooperative body to Captain Fowlers office.

He had jumped like a frightened rabbit when Nines had sent him that email to thank him.

He had only sent it in the hopes the Detective would leave him alone.

He had also noticed Gavin not laughing at him, like every single other officer in the force. Reed, normally at the center of the harassment, was suddenly no where to be found.

And he had noticed Gavin defend him. Everyone had.

Nines didn’t care about insults. He couldn’t even hear what Creed had said to him- he was just standing there, watching as the whole precinct laughed in his face.

But Creed had said something, something that had set Gavin off like a bullet from a gun.

He wondered what it was.

_What had caused that expression on his face, as he had been dragged, clearly screaming at Creed, down the hallway to the Captain's office?_

He didn’t have long to wonder, as the door of the office flew open and an apoplectic Captain Fowler stormed in. He stopped in front of the two chairs, and stood staring at them, a vein pulsing in his temple.

Nines watched placidly as Fowler began pacing around the office, mouth opening and arms waving as he delivered what was assumedly a rant, unlike that which a particularly angry teacher would give a student caught smoking.

Nines heard nothing, but he felt Gavin slowly sliding further down the chair next to him.

He chanced a look at the detective; his grey eyes were clouded and his hands were tightly folded in his leather jacket.

He looked, Nines decided, exactly how he had felt all those times Gavin had gotten a group jeering session going; when he had stood around his desk with Creed and the others calling him a _sexbot_ and a _Barbie doll_ and a million other things that had sent Nines to the bathroom, sitting with his eyes closed in a locked stall to escape their voices.

He looked completely humiliated.

He looked _afraid_.

Suddenly Gavin turned to look at him, and Nines realised that Fowler had stopped pacing and was standing with his arms crossed in from of him.

He had forgotten _already_ , Nines realised, that he couldn’t hear.

Nines tapped his ear, and Gavin began speaking to Fowler, pointing at him and leaning forward defensively. Fowler put out a hand and Gavin slumped back down, shutting his mouth so tight it was just a thin, white line.

The captain pulled a yellow legal pad from his desk and produced a pen from his pocket, thrusting them towards Nines.

Thirium from his nose immediately started dripping onto it, and suddenly onto a hand that was grabbing the paper and pen from him.

Gavin left Nines holding the air as he grabbed the pad and pen and began scribbling away on the paper, his forehead tight in concentration, smearing thirium over the page with his awkward left-handed movements.

Nines looked at Fowler, who was speaking to Gavin, and realised they were transcribing question to ask him.

So he couldn’t get out of this _completely_ uninvolved, then.

Gavin continued writing, filling up half the page, so Nines took this opportunity to remove his jacket and stem the bleeding from his nose. He leaned over and closed his eyes, holding the material over his face until he felt a hand tapping at his shoulder.

Gavin handed him the thirium stained paper, and Nines began processing the chickens-cratch handwriting. It took longer than expected—Gavin really had _dreadful_ writing- but eventually the message fully loaded.

_He wants to know what happened today but I figure u couldn’t actually hear it so ~~basicly~~ basically Creed did his usual shit but he was also a bitch to me as well so that’s why I tried to hit him. Idk why u stopped him but fowler thinks I was beating u up. _

_So that’s what they were saying._

Nines noticed Gavin wrote like a text message. 

He looked up at Gavin, who was leaning towards Nines, rubbing the corner of his eye and looking very nervously at him. 

He wasn’t sure what to do.

He was informed of several paths using his preconstruction functions:

 ** _1._** He could tell on Gavin _and_ Creed which would get them both fired, but he would be more hated at the precinct _._

**_2_**. He could say he didn’t know what had happened with Creed, but still tell on Gavin, getting him fired.

_**3**_. He could cover for Gavin, but get Creed fired, still making him more hated at the precinct and doing nothing _about_ Gavin. 

While these choices ran through his head, he saw an incoming message from an unexpected sender.

As he read it, the pre-constructed routes changed, altered courses and branched into new options, until finally one path became clear to him.

One that might not end up with him getting turned into titanium spaghetti by the other officers.

He held the pencil, still warm from Gavin’s hand, abjectly aware that both he and Fowler were watching him intently. Looking into Gavin’s face, he saw how fearful he was.

Nines knew almost nothing about Gavin Reed, but he knew one thing— _he had not made fun of him today._

So he wrote on the paper, while Gavin chewed his fingernails and Fowler tapped his foot.

And though thirium dripped on the paper and though Nines’ had nothing but fear running through his body, he wrote down everything.

A damp blue sheaf of papers was handed to the captain.

Captain Fowler read through it slowly, carefully, with Gavin bouncing out of his seat, and Nines watching intently.

After what felt like an age, the captain turned and spoke to Gavin.

Relief flooded his face, relaxing the line between his eyebrows and lightening his stormy eyes.

Nines even saw what might have been the shadow of a smile flitting over his face.

The Detective snatched the legal pad off Fowler’s desk, and Nines watched his hand flying over the page, an indecipherable scrawl that Nines could just about reconstruct into actual words:

_We’re not fired but on ~~probas~~ probation. _

_I am, not you lol. Creed will be investigated, we can go._

At the end Gavin had drawn a little smiley face.

:) 

Nines folded up the page and put it in his pocket, nodded thank you to the captain, who had sat down at his desk and was returning his and Gavin’s files to a cabinet.

He exited the office, ignoring the permanent warning message about his damaged leg that popped up every time he walked, and was returning slowly to his desk when someone caught his arm.

He looked down at Gavin.

He was saying something, something Nines couldn’t hear, but something distinguishable nonetheless-

_Thank you._

Nines nodded at him. He had nothing to say to him- he didn’t need to know why he had covered for him.

But after returning to his desk, leaving Gavin standing alone in the center of the station, he opened the message function and sat rereading one particular one over and over again.

_Coming back on Friday!!! :)_

_Connor_.


	7. Gavin Has An Objectively Even Worse Day At Work (Part 2 of 1847)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin is informed he has to take the Nines case.  
> He feels like he has just been sent to Super Mega Hell, Supernatural Style, but an encounter in the break room changes his mind. (At least, for now.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a short one, but don't worry! Gavin gets his ass kicked in the next one!! Enjoy <3

Gavin did not know what he was expecting when he arrived late to work on Friday, but it was certainly not to see Officer Tina Chen and Nines sitting at his desk, silently waiting for him to arrive.

 _What the fuck_ , he thought.

'Um, what the fuck?' he said, yanking out his earphones and staring at them.

Nines and Chen exchanged an ominous look that Gavin did not like.

' So, we um, have some news,' Chen said tentatively, avoiding eye contact as she slid a slim folder across the desk to him.

Gavin took one look at it, saw the words ' **CASE FILE** ' emblazoned on the front, and immediately felt his stomach drop straight into the 9th circle of hell.

'No.' he said, looking wildly from Chen to Nines. 'This _cannot_ be seriously happening.'

Nines was looking determinedly away from him, but Chen's slightly-smug-yet-anxious expression confirmed his worst fears.

_No fucking way._

'I am not working the _goddamn Tin Can case_!!' he exploded, showing the case file back at Chen. 'I'm already on probation, isn't that fucking _enough_ for you people?'

(Turns out- it was not.)

Chen shrugged. 'Look, Fowler assigned it to you two this morning. I'm only here to translate for Nines.' She tapped the android on the shoulder, the way one might pet a dog.

Nines barely turned to look at her, still ignoring Gavin completely.

'There's nothing you can do about it, so let me know when you want to get started.' She put her hands right in front of Nines' face and signed something quickly to him, while Gavin watched in despair.

This was going to be a compete fucking nightmare.

He could barely even look at the android any more, and now they had to work a whole _goddamn case_ together?

' Fowler is really playing at Satan here,' he muttered, combing his hands through his hair in distress. 'I won't fucking do it.'

He snatched the case file off the desk and shoved it into Nines' chest.

'I won't _fucking_ do it!' he said, aloud this time, to an unperturbed looking Chen.

She shrugged again, obviously having been expecting this kind of reaction.

Nines simply sat, holding the case file.

Gavin normally would have made a spectacular dramatic exit here, but seeing as they were all already at his desk, the only place he could dramatically storm away to was the break room, where he immediately headed, leaving Chen and Nines far behind him.

He strode angrily into the mercifully empty break room and began clattering around, pouring himself a double strength coffee.

'This is the last fucking straw,' he said to himself, 'I'm going to quit this _fucking_ job, I swear to god.'

He threw open the cupboard doors, searching for the sugar, which of course had been removed from it's usual spot, because everyone who worked here was a fucking idiot.

Unable to find it, he pulled down a bag of mysterious white powder and squinted at it. Sugar? Salt?

'Hopefully it's cocaine,' he grumbled.

He heaped a spoonful into his coffee, but was distracted by his phone unexpectedly vibrating in his pocket.

He opened a new message from an unknown sender.

_That is salt._

He read the message twice, before turning around to see Nines standing quietly at the door of the break room.

He immediately felt embarrassed. This was the first time he had been alone with the android since the fiasco that was Wednesday.

They had spent the last two days avoiding each other like the plague- the only time they had even looked at each other was when Nines caught Gavin stealing surreptitious glances at the android as he worked at the desk in front, paranoid he was planning some kind of revenge plot.

Luckily, Nines had been avoiding him too.

Unless he _was_ actually planning some kind of elaborate secret revenge plot.

So, Gavin was not exactly at ease having Nines standing in front of him, his nose still slightly crooked from Gavin's fist.

He stuck his finger in the coffee and tasted it.

Ew, okay. He was right. Unfortunately salt.

Gavin nodded at him and tucked his phone away.

'Thank you,' he said, turning to pour the coffee away and hoping that was all Nines wanted.

Another vibration in his pocket. _Fuck_.

_I'm sorry you have to work the case with me._

Gavin looked up at the android, surprised. He thought Nines would be laughing his ass off right now about this unfortunate series of events, but when he looked at his face, the scarred features showed an almost apologetic expression. 

The eyes were still as blank as ever, but Gavin was good at reading faces.

(Or leaping to false conclusions, whichever.)

He typed a short message:

 _It's fine_.

He sent the message and watched Nines' LED light up yellow as he recieved it. Almost immediately he recieved a reply:

_I will try to avoid annoying you_.

Gavin frowned at the android's reply. Was Nines really so worried about Gavin's opinion of him?

For some reason, he found himself wishing he could have a proper conversation with him, instead of all this email and texting shit. He stared down at the keyboard, wondering what to reply, when he looked up and realised Nines had taken a step toward him.

Randomly Gavin thought about how tall the android was- easily several inches taller than he was.

This close it was easy to see the criss cross scars running across his face- one ran down the corner of his mouth, that if you didn't know better, you could almost take for a smile.

Suddenly, in one of those jarringly quick movements, the android reached out over Gavin's shoulder. He almost jumped a foot in the air, expecting to get his lights punched out as Nines finally enacted his revenge plot, but Nines simply handed him the sugar bowl, which had been inconveniently left on the very top shelf, where Gavin definitely couldn't reach. 

_Stupid tall plastic fucker-_

He took the sugar bowl nervously, placing it on the counter. 

'Um, thank you? I-'

Gavin had no idea what he was going to say, but stopped talking after suddenly realising he was talking to the back of Nines' jacket.

Just as mysteriously he had appeared, he walked away, leaving Gavin alone again.

'Fucking hell,' he muttered, turning to spoon the sugar into his newly salt-less cup.

What the _hell_ was the android doing? He surely couldn't have come to watch Gavin fuck up making some coffee. Was that some kind of weird peace gesture? Was there more he wanted to say?

And why had he been so _stressed_ the entire time the dude was beside him?

He had no idea why he was so unnerved by the android lately. Since he had seen him in the repair facility, he had been on his mind like a particularly annoying song- if songs gave you nightmares and panic attacks. 

Suddenly an image flashed in his mind- the android standing, staring at him, thirium dripping on the carpet as he stood between Gavin and Creed.

There was a real mystery to the guy. But what was it?

And why did Gavin feel like he owed him something?

He sighed, clutching the coffee cup and leaning on the counter.

Because he _did_ , he realised.

The only reason he was even still enployed here was because Nines had covered for him.

For no apparent reason, it would seem. But still. Gavin did not like owing people.

And there was one thing-one _horrible, terrible_ thing--that Gavin could do to repay him.

_I suppose I better tell Tina fucking Chen that I'll take the case,_ he thought.

_Let the shit show begin._


	8. Things go Very Wrong, Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin and Tina can barely keep themesleves from killing each other as the unlikely trio attempt to work on the case.
> 
> Then, typically, everything comes crashing down as Nines has a breakdown and Gavin takes all the blame- delivered courtesy of Connor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who commented and stuff! You really made me so happy!! ^_^  
> Now, back to things working out for our friends for a few millisecond before falling apart again... Enjoy!

Sitting in between what felt like the hundredth epic 'Gavin versus Tina' shouting match, Nines was starting to wish he had just bashed Gavin over the head with the sugar bowl and done away with him instead.

Unable to actually hear them fighting, he just say quietly in between them at Gavin's desk, watching as they shoved papers at each other, rolled their eyes, screamed, yelled, and produced quite a number of middle fingers.

It was actually impressive how badly this was going-- and they had literally started _24_ minutes ago.

They were both solidly ignoring him- Tina too busy starting arguments with Gavin, Gavin too busy looking anywhere but at him- to even notice him silently connecting to the computer and _actually_ doing some investigation.

Nines actually wanted to solve this one- and it was looking like he was going to have to do it alone.

After 18 more minutes of trawling through CCTV footage, Tina finally tapped him on the shoulder. He looked up, surprised to see that Gavin had disappeared while he wasn't looking, and now it was only Tina sitting next to him.

Normally he would have been ecstatic to get rid of Gavin, but an unfortunately unanticipated side effect of working this case with Tina was that..well...she was _terrible_ at Sign Language.

He appreciated the effort, but she was like, really, _really_ bad.

At the very beginning she had spent about 5 minutes slowly signing out something mostly unintelligible, that even Nines' advanced software recognition programmed couldn't decipher, although he did think he caught the word 'bees' in there somewhere.

From then on every time she started talking to him he simply tuned out her garbled signing and used his preconstruction abilities to figure out what the conversation was likely about.

However, since the conversations were mostly about how Gavin was a massive dickhead, he didn't think it very important he paid attention.

Now, she was again attempting to form some kind of sentence, which Nines, through some really strained and sketchy preconstruction, inferred was something about 'coffee'.

Ah. So that's where Gavin had gone.

(He had noticed Gavin's tendency to drink through a minimum of four cups before eleven o'clock.)

Not bothering to attempt an ASL conversation with Tina, he sent a text message to her-

_Is he coming back?_

Tina read the message, shaking her head and making an expression that said 'doubtful'.

Nines couldn't help himself calculating how the chances of them making some progress had now gone up by approximately 68%.

Tina, now unoccupied thanks to Gavin's departure, began sorting through damage reports, while Nines compiled a list of potential witnesses who may have seen something that night.

Watching the security footage had not been very useful-- someone had knocked out the residential cameras almost an hour before Nines had even left that morning.

He ran his hand through his hair, a distressed gesture- he had no idea where he had picked it up from- that he associated with frustration over a lack of progress.

He wanted to know who had done this to him, and the other two officers were steadfast becoming more of a hindrance than a help.

He had thought that trying to make peace with Gavin earlier would have calmed him down a bit, but it seemed that there was just nothing he could do about the unpredictable and irrational behaviour of the man.

In fact, it seemed he had caused him to become even _more_ touchy and irritable than before. 

He was thinking about this when suddenly a cup of black coffee was plonked down on the desk in front of him.

Gavin had returned, and Nines scanned the expression on his face to see he seemed to be in a better mood, for some reason. 

Nines was an analytical creature by nature, so he couldn't help himself figuring out why this was.

Judging by the amount of sugar in his coffee it was possible he was hyperactive.

The elevated heart rate and dilated pupils also suggested this, but Nines was unable to stop himseld running through several possibilities in his mind.

One that came up- perhaps Gavin was mentally ill.

Not a _completely_ insane possibility.

He filed away this information for some other time, and watched as Tina began sniping at him again.

She waved a sheet of paper in his face, and Gavin, initially annoyed, frowned as tried to read it. He took it from her and read through it, before handing it to Nines. 

Nines took it from him, and scanned over it. Immediately he noticed what the problem was- it was the repair report from the Android Repair Facility. And at the bottom was written in small, neat letters:

 **Fully operational**.

 _Fully_? Nines was _barely_ even functional anymore. He couldn't hear, speak, walk properly, and his motor skills had been seriously impaired, his nervous system often glitching and freezing when picking things up or holding them.

(He also looked terrible, but that was probably not relevant.)

He was alerted to an incoming message from D. R:

_????_

He sent back a reply, confused.

_Untrue_.

Gavin nodded at his phone, then at Nines.

_i call bullshit_

_sus_

Nines absently touched his hand to the scar on his lip. This _had_ to be important.

Why would someone list him as fully repaired, when it was completely untrue? He sent another message to Gavin:

_This is relevant, somehow._

He noticed another incoming message, this time from a sender listed as T. C:

_Um, have you found something? U could maybe tell me pls 😒_

He looked up to see Tina staring at them both, annoyed, her arms crossed.

Gavin put his phone away, laughing.

Nines suddenly almost smiled. It was funny. Tina Chen, left out of a conversation between him and Gavin Reed?

The atmosphere was suddenly more relaxed- he sensed that they had made a tiny, tiny breakthrough. 

Then it all went wrong.

Suddenly Nines saw thirium dripping onto his hand.

He looked at it, confused, and realised his nose was bleeding. An error message interrupted his sight.

_**> >ERROR// THIRIUM LEVEL LOW//<>** _

_**> SHUT DOWN IMMINENT /<** _

_** >REPLACE THIRIUM /ERROR #68<** _

The message obscured his entire eyesight for a split second, before his entire head went blank and he saw nothing as he glitched in and out of consciousness. 

Nines looked up through blurry, black tinged vision, to see Gavin for some reason standing beside him, clutching the front of his shirt.

He realised he was falling over, and Gavin was keeping him upright.

Then, out of seemingly nowhere, Gavin was dragged backwards, and he felt himself crash into the floor.

Faces swam through his vision, blurry and terrifying, shadowy demons, unreadable as his empty heart shut his brain down. 

Lying sideways on the floor, the last thing he saw was Connor-

_(-why was Connor here? His mind was unable to process this-)_

_(-what was going on-_ ) 

-yanking Gavin back-

-and slapping him full force in the face. 

Then nothing. 

And officers were gathering around his unconscious body, watching as Connor broke Gavin's nose, drops of his blood mingling with Nines' on the floor.


	9. POV- Connor is Beating You Up, for Unknown Reasons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trying to stop Nines combusting, (or whatever is wrong with him), Gavin find himself in a bit of a déja vu tangle with Connor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short one- Gavin gets beat up, and we love to see it. Enjoy! <3

Gavin lunged across the table, grabbing the from of Nines' shirt before he tipped out of his chair, shuddering, onto the floor.

Clutching a fistful of material, he stared frantically into the android's shaking head and darkening eyes.

'Nines? Hey, Nines, what the hell?'

He had no idea what to do. He looked up desperately at Chen, who was covering her mouth and looking around wildly at the sudden gathering of officers who were clustering around, stretching their necks to see the unfolding drama.

Gavin shook Nines, praying he would come back to life.

' Dude, hey, _hey_..'

He trailed off as Nines head lolled to the side, thririum running out of his nose and onto the floor. His LED flashed yellow, then turned an angry red colour.

Gavin, who was still holding the front of his shirt, became aware of a sudden commotion amongst the officers gathered behind him.

Then-

' _Reed_.'

He was yanked backwards by the neck of his jacket as if being sucked out of a space craft. He barely had time to react, finding himself held fast by his collar, staring into a pair of steely brown eyes.

 _Connor_?

What the fuck was he doing here?

'What the fuck have you done to him, Reed?' Connor spat at him, his jaw set, pushing away someone who attempted to grab his arm with ease.

'What the fuck, dude, I'm _helping_ him, _help him_! ' Gavin yelled at him, taking in the bright red LED at Connor's temple. He gestured as best he could towards Nines, who was currently crumpled, forgotten on the floor.

He'd seen this look in Connor's eyes before--and nothing good had come of it.

'This is _helping_ him? ' Connor said flatly, his eyes determined, burning through into Gavin's brain.

The android let go of Gavin's collar with one hand, and he knew what was coming next.

He heard the sound before he felt the pain.

And then he couldn't see anything, whiteness blinding his vision as he fell to the floor.

Blood was streaming down his face eerily similar to Nines' nosebleed a moment before, the coppery tast filling his mouth and choking him.

There was no doubt in his mind that Connor's super human punch had broken his nose.

Blurrily he looked up at Connor, who was standing over him like a giant. Around him was a group of horrified officers, watching as Connor knelt beside him and delivered another epically enhanced blow.

_Don't hit me there don't no don't you'll find out-_

Gavin felt something in his face breaking, and then the lights swam away, and he felt nothing.


	10. A Series of Interviews, and Dire Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captain Fowler investigates the events that have occurred.  
> His decisions are final- and things will never be the same again for Connor, Creed, and Gavin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I have no idea how the American Police work, so this is based off what would likely happen in my country :)  
> Enjoy, if you're not too upset by the consequences...... <3
> 
> (also everyone who comments and stuff-y'all are making me so happy !<3<3)

**OFFICER NUMBER:446**

**Anderson, Connor**

**On Suspension : Serious Physical Assault**

**UP FOR REVIEW**

'Explain. '

Connor tapped his fingers on the table. His LED spin yellow for several moments, his eyes closed as he arranged his statement. Since his deviancy Connor had discovered he was a very.. emotional person, and he didint want to mess this up. 

'As you know, Captain, I have been away from the precinct for several months now. I admit, I felt hesitant to leave RK900 alone here, but duty called. Last week I was sent a file from an Officer Jonathan Creed, a man I knew but had never spoken to.

Attached was several video clips, CCTV footage from the precinct, of Detective Reed physically and verbally harassing RK900. '

Connor paused to ensure that Fowler was writing this down correctly. He knew this had to be an official statement, something that had to save his career, but how could he 'officially state' how angry, how purely enraged he had been, sitting and watching security footage from months of Reed bullying Nines?

Months he had been away, leaving him completely alone. Alone to get attacked and half-destroyed, let alone put through that in the office. 

He had processed again and again, the blank, dead look he had never seen in Nines- the total depression, as he was slapped and pinched and knocked around and called things so foul Connor found himself gritting his teeth just thinking about it.

'Detective.'

He realised he was staring into space, and cleared his throat apologetically. (An imitative act, since he didn't actually have a throat to clear, as such.)

'I was scheduled to return to the precinct last Friday, so I decided I would return and turn in the footage I had been sent.'

'I understand that you were upset by discovering the harassment directed towards RK900. However, you, instead of reporting it, decided to assault--seriously assault--Detective Reed.'

Fowler swiped open the tablet on the table. A video of Connor, knocking out Detective Reed amidst a crowd of gaping officers, was playing on the screen.

Connor shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. He was struggling to explain properly.

' You can't claim self defense here, Connor.' Fowler said, staring penetratively at him. 

'Captain, I arrived at the precinct with full intention of making a formal complaint against Detective Reed. However, I arrived to find Reed seriously damaging Nines-RK900- causing him to enter complete shutdown-'

Fowler cut him off, leaning forward in disbelief.

' Detective Reed did _not_ assault RK900. '

Connor was utterly confused.

' Captain, I _saw_ him! He was clearly attacking Nines on the floor of the office! 'Connor exclaimed.

Fowler reacher out and rewound the footage from Connor's attack, running it back to five minutes previous.

Connor leaned in to watch as a clip of the Detective and Nines laughing, making some sort of joke with Officer Chen, apparently getting along just fine.

This did not compute with Connor's memory, nor his reconstruction of the incident, _nor_ the huge file of Gavin Reed's awful behaviour toward Nines. 

'But...how?' he murmered, watching closer, and suddenly -

'There,' said Fowler, pausing the video.

A freeze frame- Nines doubling over, his nose bleeding, completely untouched by Gavin, who was clearly on the other side of the table.

'No.' 

Connor pressed his hand to his head, hard. None of this made sense.

Completely separate reconstructions were clashing in his mind- nonsensical amalgamations of memory and imagination, none of which matched this video.

Fowler hit play again, and Gavin Reed leapt across the table to steady Nines, calling for help.

Connor looked away, unable to watch as he entered on screen again, yanking Reed away from a shuddering Nines.

It was impossible- Connor, wrong? 

'As you can see, Detective Anderson-'

'I can't believe this,' Connor interjected. 'How could I have been so wrong?'

'It doesn't matter now, Detective. You did what you did. And this is the second time you have committed serious assault- also toward Detective Reed.' 

Connor was unable to produce a reply to this. It was true- this was the second time he had seriously injured Gavin. It had been a year ago; overlooked after he had been decorated as a hero of the revolution, but it was clearly coming back to haunt him now. 

Fowler slowly pulled a sheet of paper from a file, and pushed it towards him. 

'Connor, from me to you, I understand you only sought to protect RK900. However,' he said, his face hardening, ' You seriously assaulted another officer. You have always been an exemplary Detective here, but this kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable. You were lucky to be excused on a first charge, but the fact you have done it again-' Fowler tapped the page -' means that you are going to face a severe penalty. '

Connor read the paper.

He looked up at Fowler's stone cold expression, too many emotions in him for his mind to identify.

' Captain-'

' This decision is final, Detective Anderson.'

'Captain, please, ' Connor said again, pleading this time. This couldn't happen to him.

'Sign the paper, Connor.'

**********************************

**OFFICER NUMBER :156**

**Creed, Jonathan**

**SUSPENSION : Repeated Workplace Harrasment, Workplace Assault, Breach of Code of Conduct, Unlawful Archive Use**

**UP FOR REVIEW**

'Officer Creed, perhaps you could explain this.'

Fowler hit play on the tablet. Creed watched a small tinny version of himself shoving the plastic, and smirked as a mini Gavin Reed attempted to attack him, stopped by the plastic itself.

The video stopped, and Fowler rested his chin on this hand expectantly.

Creed shrugged nonchalantly.

' So I was kind of mean to him. No worse than anyone else around here,' he said, folding his arms.

Fowler pulled a sheaf of papers from a folder and handed them to Creed, who took them reluctantly. It was some kind of handwritten document; a bunch if tiny, neat but blue stained pages.

' This is a statement from RK900 about your involvement in severe workplace harrasment.'

Creed stared at Fowler, mouth agape. This was completely ridiculous; _severe harrasment???_

 _'Oh_ my god. I called it names a few times. Maybe the odd dig in the ribs, but _severe harassment?_ '

He threw the statement down on the table.

'It's clearly exaggerating. I'm not the one harrasing it- it's _him_!' he burst, thrusting his finger at Reed's image on the tablet.

'Detective Reed's involvement in this matter is completely irrelevant. We have video evidence, and witness from several third party officers, all of which confirms that you have been majorly involved in multiple incidences of what qualifies for severe harrasment, including offensive comments toward Detective Reed. ' Fowler put his elbows on the desk, and looked scathingly at Creed.

' In addition, I have been informed of your engagement in misuse of archive footage, which you used to provoke Detective Anderson into physical assault on another officer. '

Oh, shit.

Creed wiped his forehead. This was a lot more intense than he was expecting. He hadn't anticipated that Fowler would find out about provoking Connor into attacking Reed.

That had been his master Shakespeare-sequel plan- get someone else to beat Reed into a pulp for him.

It had worked, but apparently his grand scheme had been uncovered.

He realised defence was the only way he could play here, so he widened his eyes and shifted closer to Fowler.

' Look, Captain- I'm a good officer. I have a really good record here, and maybe I messed up a bit, a couple too many jokes about the plas- androids.'

He spread his hands in the universal ' _I'm only human'_ gesture _._

'I apologise for any disturbance I have caused.'

There. Surely that was apology enough. 

Fowler narrowed his eyes, and took a sheet of paper out of the file from earlier.He placed it on the desk in front of Creed.

'You can apologise by signing this form.'

Creed paled. His hands felt shaky.

' This is...this is not fair.' he stammered. No way could Fowler do this. This had to be illegal, or something.

Fowler pursed his lips. 'Its the best conclusion I could have come to, Jonathan. Now sign the form.'

'I'll sue you for this, you know,' Creed spat at him.

But he signed the form.

***************************************

**WITNESS STATEMENT 3 OF 7**

'Officer Chen. Kindly give any details you have in relation to either the incident between RK900 and Detective Reed.'

Tina squeezed her hands together nervously. She hated knowing how many people were in serious trouble at the moment, and knowing that the DPD was never going to be the same after this day.

'Detective Reed has had....a _dislike_ of RK900 since he started working here.'

She bit her lip as Fowler wrote this down.

'Do you know what exactly occurred on Wednesday the 19th?'

'Um, basically, Creed was bullying Nines, calling him names and stuff.' She paused, trying to recall the incident.

'Gavin was defending Nines, which I noticed because it was so weird-'

'Weird how?' interrupted Fowler.

'See, normally...um, _Gavin_ is the one you know, calling Nines names and stuff.'

Fowler nodded, and slid a tablet across the table to her. Tina looked at the screen--a document containing a list of horrible insults was displayed on the screen.

'Does any of this seem familiar?'

Tina looked over the list.

'I mean, some of it.... I don't really know Gavin that well, so I didn't take much notice of what exactly was going on- but I did notice that he was bullying him.'

Fowler wrote this down, as Tina continued;

'But on that one day Gavin stood up to Creed for Nines. He was being _so_ horrible, and then he called Gavin something really awful and that kind of set Gavin off.'

Fowler looked up from the page.

'And how did Nines sustain injuries in the fight?'

Tina pulled at her hair.

'He just like...suddenly appeared in between them. It was so fast- I don't even really know what happened. And then when Creed was suspended--everyone was saying he was going to be fired.' 

'And the incident last week? With Detective Anderson? '

This time Tina was pleased--she has seen everything that had happened.

'We were working on the case. Nines suddenly started breaking down or omething, and Gavin was trying to help him. Then Connor just _appeared_ and started beating him up.'

She shuddered slightly at the memory of Connor's terrifying expression as he shattered Gavin's face. It had been so awful--the whole thing. It had taken several officers to restrain Connor, who could have killed Gavin if he had hit him again. 

And then when they were all suspended, and Nines dragged away; she hadn't heard anything from anyone involved since. It had been horrible for the last week ; the ominous absence of Gavin and Connor, the bloodstains still on the carpet. 

Fowler closed his notes and smiled at her. 

'Thank you, Officer Chen. We are investigating everything that's happened--hence why we needed your statement.'

He reached out and shook her hand. ' We will take everything you and several other witnesses have told us. Thank you for your time.'

Tina stood up, immensely relieved this was over. She began making her way out of the interrogation room and stopped when she reached the door. She looked back at Fowler.

' Captain...are Gavin and Nines..okay?' she asked tentatively.

' Close the door on your way out, Officer.'

Tina left, an uncomfortable knot of anxiety forming in her stomach.

If they were okay, he would have told her, she thought.

***********************************

**OFFICER NUMBER: 117**

**Reed, Gavin**

**SUSPENSION: Assault, Serious Workplace Harrasment, Improper Statement, Non-Compliance with Superior Officers**

**UP FOR REVIEW**

'Detective.'

Gavin sat quietly in his seat. Normally Gavin was the raging type, but he knew there was no way out of this one- he might as well just sit and take what was inevitably coming.

Fowler sat back in his seat and sighed.

Gavin looked at him numbly; partly from the cocktail of painkillers he had taken this morning, and partly due to a cometr brain block about what to say to Fowler. 

'You lied, Detective.'

'I know,' said Gavin. His face hurt when he spoke.

'You gave me the impression last time we spoke that you were also a _victim_ of Officer Creed. You neglected to mention that you have been involved in _numerous_ cases of harrasment, both physical and verbal, toward RK900.'

Gavin had nothing to say. It was as if Connor had broken his brain as well as 3 bones in his face- he couldn't think of anything to say in his own defense.

Maybe, because he couldn't, he thought miserably.

Fowler pulled out a tablet and a thick file from under the table. He turned the tablet towards Gavin.

'This is a compilation of every single incident you have been involved in with RK900 in the last 4 months,' he said, a hard edge in his voice.

'Would you like to know how many there are?'

No, thought Gavin. He looked at the floor.

'One hundred and eight.'

Fowlers voice shot through him like a bullet, pentrating his fuzzy brain. He looked up, finally.

'One hundred?.... and eight?' he said slowly, disbelievingly.

Fowler nodded, disgust clearly written on his face.

'Almost one per day. More, sometimes. We have audio files. Witness statements.' He shook his head, disappointment radiating off him, through Gavin, who looked down at the floor again.

He couldn't believe this. One hundred and eight times he had bullied Nines. No wonder the android was unresponsive and dead eyed.

Fowler tapped his hand on the table, and Gavin jerked his head up, wincing as the movement jarred his still taped- together bones.

'Explain what happened with Officer Creed.' Gavin sank into his seat.

'He was bullying Nines.'

'So were you'

Gavin didn't say anything.

'I understand Creed also provoked you?'

'He called me..a...queer,' mumbled Gavin as quietly as he could into his jacket collar. 

'So you attempted to assault him.'

This got Gavin's attention. He sat up slightly straighter.

'Of course I did,' he said, louder this time. 'I could hardly let him away with...with saying that!'

Fowler stared at him, unperturbed by Gavin's sudden rising temper.

'And, what about what happened with Detective Anderson?'

Gavin put his hand to his swollen cheek.

'I have no idea,' he said coldly, ' why Anderson decided to beat the crap out of me.'

'I have received Detective Anderson's statement already,' Fowler said. 'He had been informed by Officer Creed, who informed him of your harrasment of RK900, with the intention of provoking him to assault you.'

Gavin felt hot anger sweeping through his body. He could feel a familiar acidic feeling in his stomach--a sure sign he was going to fly off the handle. 

It was _Creed?? Creed_ had done this??

He thought of Creed's smug, knowing expression as he had called him that..that word. The way he had sneered when Nines had thrown himself in front of him- the way his friends had whispered about him when he was sent home on suspension-

Something snapped in Gavin then.

He leapt out of his seat, his blood boiling.

'I was _helping_ that _fucking android_ and you _fucking_ know it,' he exploded, shaking. ' I was _defending_ him from Creed and I was _helping_ him and _fucking Connor_ decided to knock my lights out!!'

Fowler slammed his hands onto the table.

'Detective, sit down right this instant!'

Gavin couldn't contain his rage now, practically spitting as yelled at his boss.

'I bullied Nines, yeah, but I was trying to _change_ , since he had the fucking accident! And now, you're all judging for trying to beat up some homophobic _bastard_ , and for getting knocked out for no reason!!'

He gasped for breath, his heart pounding heavily in his ears, his head aching. For a moment he thought he was going to have a heart attack, when, inexplicably - he started crying.

Gavin collapsed into the chair again, feeling as though he could no longer stand up, gingerly holding his battered face in his hands as he cried.

He didn't even know _why_ he was crying.

He heard Fowler sitting down again opposite him. He kept his face in his hands as he spoke to him. 

'Detective, your behaviour over the last four months has been completely unacceptable. Frankly, I'm shocked at you.'

Gavin didn't move.

'I have given you multiple second chances over the years. But you have demonstrated a complete ignorance of your priveliges here, and continually shown yourself to be ignorant, rash, and unstable.'

Gavin squeezed his eyes closed, ignoring the intense pain from his broken cheekbone. He heard the sound of a sheet of paper being slid across the table.

'I have no other choice, Gavin. You were already on probation. '

Gavin sat up and picked up the pen, without looking at Fowler. He didn't want to see his expression--whether pity or anger. 

'Sign it, Detective.'

There was a slight hint of bitterness in the captain's voice.

Gavin signed, scrawling his name on the dotted line. He threw the pen on the desk and put his head in his hands again, blocking out the world. 

************************

Captain Fowler sat in a board meeting for hours, debating and discussing and arguing with the Board of Management. 

It finally ended, and he sat, exhausted, at his desk, reading the piece of paper in front of him.

_**Officer Number:446** _

**Anderson, Connor**

~~On Suspension : Multiple Counts of Serious Physical Assault~~

**DISMISSED**

_**OFFICER NUMBER :156** _

**Creed, Jonathan**

~~SUSPENSION: Repeated Workplace Harrasment, Minor Workplace Assault, Breach of Code of Conduct, Unlawful Archive Use~~

**SUSPENDED**

_**OFFICER NUMBER:698** _

**RK900**

Statement unable to be obtained due to critical health condition. See files. 

**O** **N LEAVE - PENDING**

_**OFFICER NUMBER: 117** _

**Reed, Gavin**

~~SUSPENSION: Assault, Serious Workplace Harrasment, Improper Statement, Non-Compliance with Superior Officers, Repeated Behavioural Infractions~~

**DISMISSED**

It was a bad day at the Detroit Police Department. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all, this may seem like the end for our friends but DO NOT PANIC!!!


	11. The One Where Everyone is Doing Very Badly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our friends have to deal with the consequences of what happened- mostly not very well. Meanwhile, Tina hatches a plan.......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW FOR DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE/MISUSE
> 
> So! A bit of a dramatic last chapter--sorry, I just love torturing my favourite characters, what can I say.  
> This one is mostly just everyone being depressed, unfortunately, but Tina is hatching a plan of sorts.  
> Please enjoy <3

Since deviancy Connor Anderson had experienced many emotions. One thing he had learned was that there were many more unpleasant emotions than pleasant.

He had, however, never experienced anything like _this_.

Hank had tried talking to him through the locked door of his room- at first gently, reassuringly, but giving way to anger, disbelief, embarrassment. He clearly couldn't believe Connor- practically a son to him- had been dismissed from the DPD.

Even _he_ hadn't been fired, and he had showed up to work stone cold drunk for _years_. He had been asked to join a specialised panel dealing with android crime, for God's sake. And now fucking _Connor_ had been fired? Fowler had lost his goddamn mind. 

Connor couldn't understand this either. Human behaviour made no sense to him most of the time--the variety, inconsistency. Even Hank's behaviour was a big, crazy zigzag of wavy lines- random anger, happiness, love, hate. 

' _Over fucking Reed? You couldn't have just held yourself together, Connor?_ ' he had yelled through the door, as Connor sat, curled up silently in bed for the 5th day in a row.

He hadn't replied, and Hank eventually gave up. For the first time in almost a year, he cracked open a bottle of beer and slumped at the kitchen table.

Connor did not discover this.

He simply lay in the dark, the red light from his LED casting a soft glow on the ceiling.

Sumo whined, scratching at the door, but his pleas went unnoticed.

_********************************** _

Jonathan Creed sat at the end of the bar, watching the android bartender pouring his drink. 

Suspension had left him with little to do, other than drink, and seeth in anger. 

The bartender passed him the glass of whiskey, and he downed it in one, narrowing his eyes at the android, who was wiping down the counter. 

_Fucking androids_. They were fucking ruining his entire life. 

He heard the chime of his phone and pulled it out of his pocket. It was a message from his wife.

_meeting with dad rn._

He put his phone away, imagining how Fowler would react to a plea on his behalf - from his _precious daughter._

_******************************** _

The office had been quiet for nine days.Four empty desks. 

Tina had sat looking at the case file about Nines' attack for most of the day, feeling too anxious to even open it. The case was all hers now.

There had been no word from Gavin (expected, he hated her), or Connor (unexpected, he was way nicer then Gavin) , and her texts and calls to both of them had gone unanswered. 

But mostly she was worried about Nines. What had happened to him? Why had he shut down like that? And why would no one tell her _what_ was going on?? 

She looked at the top sheet of paper on the file- the damage report that Nines and Gavin had found suspicious, before...well, before everything. 

The address at the top was ' _West Detroit Android Facility.'_

Tina was a police officer down to her core. A Detective. (Despite the lack of a promotion that was a really sore spot.) 

There was a case here, a case involving a friend, and Tina was going to have to solve it alone now. 

She surreptitiously wrote down the address on the back of her hand. 

_****************************** _

There was a train coming; Gavin could feel the rusty tracks under his feet vibrating as he ran, slipping and stumbling through the rain. 

Running, running, running - his face aching and heart pounding and his side aching - but he had to keep going, because if he stopped he would completely fall apart.

_Keep going, keep going, keep going._

A week of lying on the floor of his apartment in the dark, out of his mind on painkillers, had stopped him thinking, his mind hazy and vague, the pain in his face a dull, faraway ache. It had been nice, to float out of reality for a while. 

He had suddenly come to in the middle of the night-- starving and cold. 

Gavin was _not_ a drug addict. In fact, it had been 10 years since he had so much as looked at a pill bottle. 

But now he found himself desperately combing the carpet for any last Vicodin that might have spilled from the now empty bottle, something that would stop his face hurting and the thoughts smashing against his skull like a particularly vengeful ocean. 

_Fired_. 

He had found nothing, and had sat shivering and aching on the floor until a random though hit him- 

_The train tracks_. 

The thought hit him again and again and had become such an obsessive thought that it had eventually evolved into him having to go to the tracks or he was maybe going to die. 

He remembered the train tracks from when he was a kid- his dad had taken him to watch the trains, the old ones, the slow ones that still had numbers on them and polluted the atmosphere--but he had thought them amazing as a child. He had to go there again, and see what had become of some of his last good memories. 

And so he had somehow made his way to the railway line, (he had _no_ idea how he had gotten across town, he was just there suddenly), and something in him had told him to start running, desperately pushing himself through the lashing rain. 

_Keep going keep going keep going_

He could hear the train, a quiet but distinct rattling sound that was growing louder. The tracks were rattling now too. Around the bend in front of him he saw pinprick of light that stretched into glowing fluorescent beams and reflected off the shiny wet tracks. 

_Keep going keep going keep going keepgoingkeepgoingkeepgoing-_

The lights were rushing towards him, the train screeching, and it was going to hit him-

At the last second he stepped off the tracks and stood at the side, watching the train whistling by, feeling the heat of it as it streaked by. 

'Well, that was close, ' he said to himself, after the train was long gone into the distance, standing sopping wet and shivering in the dark.

Somehow he was calmer, now. 

He walked home slowly across town through the now relentless rain, acutely aware of the pain in his head now, but he had no money and had no idea where there would be any open chemists at this time of night so he could grab a Nuerofen. 

Eventually he realised he actually had no idea where he was going, the streets dark and empty except for a few flickering streetlamps, and he stopped in the middle of the road, patting his pockets to see if he'd even remembered his phone earlier. 

A sudden movement across the road caught his eye made him jump. He span around,- and realised it was his reflection, patting its pockets, in a dimly lit shop window across the street.

 _Dumbass._ He walked over to the window.

 _Damn_ , he thought. _I look like shit_. 

He was soaked to the skin, hollow eyes, thinner and greasy-haired. His bruised face and black eyes somehow looked worse than they had originally.

He grimaced and touched his hand to his nose, and then all of a sudden-

-he was looking at Nines; staring wide-eyed at him, holding his blue bleeding nose in the rain. 

Gavin blinked- and then it was just him again, staring at his reflection, his reflection staring back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for torturing everyone--don't @ me, it's because I love them, I swear. Also I know y'all want to know what happened to Nines - all will be revealed.................!


	12. Tina Is The Only Competent Police Officer, Part One of Five Hundred

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tina does some sleuthing around the West Detroit Android Facility. She is horrified by what she finds, but gets some information.  
> Trouble is, now she needs someone else to help her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally find out (kind of) where Nines had been, thanks to Tina, the only stable person in the DPD.  
> Its not good.  
> But enjoy! <3

‘Um, hi there, can I help you?’

Tina stood at the front desk of West Detroit Android Repair Facility, a strangely blank, creepy building, staring at the employee, who was looking at her quizzically.

‘Uh,’ she said, somehow forgetting literally every word she had ever learned. 

She was in _love_. 

The engineer was hot. Like, really, really hot. Short black hair and striking red lipstick that reminded her of an old movie actress. Their nametag identified them as Ashton-889.

Ashton-889 was now staring at Tina, who was currently being attacked by a severe case of brain-freeze.

After a few seconds of standing like an idiot, Tina looked down at her hand, saw the address she had written there earlier and, suddenly remembered why she was here. 

‘I’m, yeah, uh, looking for an RK900 that was brought here about, um, two weeks ago?’ she stammered.   
The engineer shot her a slightly concerned look.   
‘I can check for you. But we don’t allow, like, visitation here,’ they said apologetically, tucking a strand of hair behind their ear and shrugging. ‘It’s not really like a human hospital.’ 

Tina had been expecting this already.   
‘Well, if that’s the case, you can give me a status report, then?’ 

Again, the engineer shrugged. ‘We can’t do that either, unless you have a permit or ID to prove you’re a close contact.’ 

Okay, this time _this_ was unexpected. Tina really didn’t want to start flashing her police badge all over the place this early, so she had to come up with a plan really fast or this whole idea would fall apart at Phase 1.

Luckily Tina was good at improv, and suddenly the perfect idea seemed to light up, light bulb style, over her head.   
She leaned close to the counter. 

‘I can’t prove to you that I’m a close contact, but I’m… I’m his girlfriend.’ 

  
Oh, she _hated_ this plan already, she thought, when she saw the raised eyebrow of the engineer. 

‘We didn’t tell anyone, yet, so no one would know about....us. But I need to know he's okay.’ She made her voice as pleading as possible. 

The engineer looked at her, a mixture of sympathy and what Tina read (more like: hoped) as possible disappointment in their eyes. 

‘Hey, I understand, its okay. Look, I can't let you in, but I'll see what I can find in terms of status reports.’

They reached out and touched Tina gently on the arm, misreading her way-too-obvious expression of glee for one of anxiety.

‘Don’t worry. Wait here, and I'll be back with anything I find’.  
The engineer disappeared through a door behind the front desk, leaving Tina standing alone in the empty, shiny white lobby. 

_Okay, time for Phase 2._

She glanced around quickly, and assured no one was there, darted behind the front desk and through the door she had just seen the engineer go through. 

Inside, she found herself in a massive, disorientating labyrinth of gleaming white corridors and what seemed like thousands of unmarked doors. 

_Okay, so this is going to be a bit harder than I anticipated,_ she thought. 

She began making her way down the nearest row of doors on the right, following that old academy rule of ‘keep right, be right’. Her footsteps sounded eerily loud in the disconcertingly silent hallway.

She had no idea where to find Nines, or if he was even definitely here. She didn't know if she would even recognise him, but she had Googled a few pictures of androids without skin and she knew vaguely that they looked similar in the face, just metal.

She had to move fast, in case someone discovered her. Deciding that a more direct approach was going to be necessary, she began pushing open every door she passed, sticking her head in and searching briefly for any signs of Nines before moving to the next one.

Strangely, the first ten rooms contained literally _nothing_. White walls, white ceilings, but no trace of anything to do with androids at all.

Strange.

She reached the end of the corridor, and turned left to find herself, exasperated, at the beginning of another corridor. This time, however- the doors were numbered. She breathed out in relief. Hopefully this would be easier. 

She opened the door nearest to her, which was labelled ‘ **Lab 1** ’. Inside there was another white room, but this time it was decked out with steel cabinets, steel tables, and a lot of scientific-looking equipment.

She noticed the table in the middle of the room was spattered with still-visible to her thirium, indicating an android had been in here recently, since it hadn't yet evaporated and become invisible. 

She left the room and began working her way down the doors again, using the same methodical ‘ _stick your head in the door approach.’_ Each lab contained a similar arrangement of stainless steel, some of them with fresh thirium still on the equipment and furnishings.

She was getting disheartened after a while- there seemed to be literally nothing useful to her in here at all. She finally reached the last lab on the row, ' **Lab 16',** and half-heartedly peered in, expecting nothing again.  
When she saw inside, she wished that she had found nothing instead.

‘ _Nines_??’ she gasped. She barely could recognise him, especially without his skin, but mostly because of the state he was in. 

_No_.

‘Nines, what the hell happened?’ she exclaimed, rushing into the room, any thoughts of being quiet and stealthy abandoned.

This was a whole lot worse than she had expected. 

This lab was the same as the others, but this time Nines was lying on the steel table, skin deactivated. but more concerning was his completely ripped open torso, displaying broken off wires and a very definitely-not-working thirium pump. The metal of his chassis was twisted, ripped sharply into spikes around his open chest, like the sharp edge of crushed tin can. 

Tina stepped closer tentatively, in horrified, fascination. She had never seen the inside of an android like this, and it was really disturbing. She saw no thirium, so he must have been here for a while. 

Nines eyes were wide open, but completely still and blank- he looked like a dead person.

And the LED, which she knew was characteristically red if the android was injured, was a clear, plastic, circle, devoid of all colour. 

‘Oh my God. What happened?’ she whispered to herself.

_Phase 3 time._

She slid a slim laptop out of her bag and placed it gingerly on the table next to Nines, trying to avoid looking at the gristly sight that was his body. This was the sketchy part of the plan- the part she barely had any idea how to execute, since she had only learned how to do this from videos on illegal-ish websites on the internet.

She pulled a wire from her beg and connected it to the laptop, opening a programme she had downloaded from a site that was definitely going to give her a virus. She really didn't want to do this part, but she had to if she was going to get anything to use in the case.

‘Sorry, Nines.’  
She felt slightly sick as she grabbed Nines wrist, the metal joint stiff and freezing cold, and began feeling for a notch that was apparently supposed to be there. She located it after a minute of inspection, and placed the other end of the wire against it. 

She was expecting nothing to happen, especially because Nines was completely un-operational, but to her delight the laptop pinged and a notification appeared on the screen.

**_Download?_ **

**Yes** **No**

She clicked yes.

A torrent of code, that Tina had no idea how to interpret, began downloading onto her laptop, far too slowly.

She had no computer expertise, and had literally learned to do this off the internet, but she understood the basics- androids store all their memories, and their diagnostics, and if you had the right equipment you could access them by hijacking the method androids usually used to exchange information with each other.

And these memories and diagnostics, she hoped, would reveal something- _anything_ , that would give her a lead. 

She stared at Nines blank, scary eyes as the loading bar slowly filled. 

_What the actual hell was going on here?_

_Bing._

100%. Download successful.

She yanked the wire out of Nines’ wrist and scooped up the laptop, shoving it unceremoniously into her bag, wasting no time on self-congratulation.

‘Sorry, Nines,’ she whispered again. She had to get out of here, now. There wasn't anything she could do for him. 

She ran out into the corridor, forgetting entirely that she was supposed to be sneaking.

Unbelievably, she encontered no one- not one person, as she stumbled through the confusing maze of corridors, clutching her bag to her chest. Eventually, after what felt like hours of walking into dead ends, she recognised the first row of doors she had opened, some of them still slightly open.

She burst through the door she had entered from, and found herself in the lobby behind the front desk once more. The lobby was miraculously empty- not even the engineer she had spoken to was here.

She didn't stop to hang around and ran out of the building into the biting November wind.   
Tina had seen a lot of weird things before- it was part of being a cop. But this was by _far_ the strangest.

She had several burning questions; for one, where were all the _employees_? It was a huge facility, and she had only encountered one actual person in there.   
And why was it so _empty_? Where were all the androids?

And most importantly- what the _hell_ had happened to Nines? 

She thought nauseously of his mangled torso, and gripped the bag containing the laptop tighter.   
There had to be something here. But she needed someone else to help her figure out what.

She walked down the street and leaned against a crumbling brick wall, as far from the creepy facility as she could manage. Taking out her phone, she opened the message app and piased, her finger hovering over one of the contacts. 

_He wasn't going to answer_. 

But she sent another message- adding one more to the archive of unread ones. 

_News abt Nines.Its urgent. Please._

She was sure this one would be read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yike. I have a very bad memory for my own work, so if stuff is wrong don't kill me.  
> But hopefully Tina will find out something useful and save Nines because GODDAMN MY POOR TIN CAN.  
> Also thank you to everyone who comments, or even reads this ^_^ xxxx<3


	13. There's Something Wrong with Gavin...... (like, more so than normal??? )

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tina attempts to recruit Gavin to help her, which goes about as well as you'd expect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tina is a brave one after all- I would 2000% never ever test Gavin like this........

‘Hey. Gavin.’

Gavin jumped and fumbled the box he was carrying, dropping his keys on the pavement. Startled, he looked up to see Tina Chen sitting on the front steps of his apartment building. She was smiling in a way that made him suddenly very scared.

‘What the fuck?’ he exclaimed, as she stood up and leaned against the doorframe.

‘You didn’t answer any of my texts,’ she said, her eyes narrowing, ‘so I came by.’

What the actual fuck? Gavin had broken his phone almost two weeks ago, so he had literally no idea what she was talking about.

‘You can't come in,’ he said, for some reason feeling anxious. This was ridiculous. She was interrupting his plan.

‘I’m coming in, Gavin, ‘she said, the smile becoming more sinister looking.

(Then again, he thought everything was sinister-looking these days.)

'You’re literally…not,’ he shot back, uncomfortable from carrying the box and from worrying about whatever the fuck she wanted to talk about.

Chen nimbly picked his keys up off the ground, which he had been awkwardly leaning to try and fish up. She dangled them in front of him.

‘Oh, ‘she said, in a tone of mock surprise, ‘looks like I am!’

To his dismay she unlocked the door.

‘Number 16, right?’

‘How the fuck do you know where I live? Also-‘he attempted to step in front of her as best he could ‘- go away.’

Too late. She was already on the staircase, his keys jingling in her hand as she determinedly marched into his apartment. .

_Oh fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck._

_The plan the plan the plan-_

He ran up the stairs as quickly as he could manage, to find Chen already standing in the apartment, his keys left in the open door, looking around in astonishment.

‘Hey, uh, what the hell is this?’she asked.

She was staring at the huge mass of paper strewn all over the place—piles upon piles of coverless books and sheets piled haphazardly on every available surface. The floor had sheets of black lined paper arranged in a pattern that looked like paper tiles, with a colourful array of Post-It Notes arranged in the letters o the alphabet on top. 

_(The plan the plan the plan_ -) 

‘It's nothing-‘ he started saying, but she picked up the nearest book and flipped through it.

‘Sheet music?’ The surprise in her voice was evident.

‘I, uh-’ he said, trying to clear a space for the box on top of the note that read ' _B_ '. 

‘I didn’t know you played,’ Chen continued behind him. ‘Piano, is it?’

He thought this was a really dumb question, since he was literally standing in front of the piano, but then he remembered all the crap he had piled on it earlier, so it was barely visible.

He straightened up and turned around to face her.

‘Yeah, I play, now could you _please_ get the fuck out of my house?’

Chen’s face returned to the steely expression from earlier.

‘The only reason I’m here is because as I said, I texted you about _fifty million times_ to tell you I had really urgent news about Nines, and how he’s in troub-‘ ‘

Listen, Chen, I _actually_ don’t give a fuck about this, and I have shit to do,’ he cut in, pulling on a stray bit off hair that was hanging in his eyes. ‘So leave.’

‘Oh yeah? _You_ have shit to do?’ she said, raising her voice. ‘Me too Gavin. In fact, I have to solve this case, that _you_ left me alone with, and-‘

Gavin pulled harder on his hair. What the _fuck_? She was interrupting his plan and now this?

‘I _left_ you alone with it!’ he said, incredulously. ‘I was fucking _fired_ , dipshit, okay?? I literally _can’t_ help you with the fucking case, okay?’

‘I saw Nines, Gavin, and he’s been destroyed!’ she yelled back at him, stepping closer and glaring at him with fury in her eyes. 

He held out his hands to stop her getting any closer. There were too many things going on in his head. He dazedly turned to the pile of music behind him on the piano and began searching for one he had put there earlier, hoping that he would be able to focus himself better if he wasn't looking at her.

‘I don’t—don’t- the fucking plastic, Chen- I _don’t care about it, okay! I don't give a shit if it's been-been- scrapped!_ Get that into – into your—your- mentally fucking de-defective brain!’ he shouted at the wall, aware that he was garbling his words; they were coming too quickly, tripping him up.

‘I’m the mentally defective one? You’re acting like a maniac! '

She was watching him as he rifled though the music on the floor more obsessively.

‘I don’t know what's wrong with you, but you owe Nines, Gavin, and you're the only detective I know that might be able to actually help him!’

He kept his back turned, pulling out the score he had been looking for.

‘I’m- I’m not a _fucking detective_ any- anymore,’ he hissed, sweeping several piled books off the piano and aggresively plonking the sheet he was clutching onto it.

‘You need to help-‘ her tone was more pleading now, the edge waning.

‘No.’ He finally turned and looked her in the eye, his eyes glinting dangerously. Chen's face flickered; fear showing itself in the twist of her mouth.

‘Remember Nines?’ she said, a final, desperate plea. 'Remember what you did?' 

He really fucking lost it at that, and suddenly banged his clenched fist down on the black and white keys. A horrible dissonant chord rang out, hurting his ears. 

_‘Get the fuck out of my house! ‘_

Chen looked at him then, a scathing look, but behind it was fear.

‘Fowler was right about you being unstable,’ she spat. 'You really are a _bastard_.'

Her words hung in the air long after she had left, Gavin playing Chopin’s Waltz in B Minor as loudly as possible; all the notes wrong, and not quite loud enough to cover the echo of her voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Yes, Gavin plays the piano - simply because I wanted that dramatic bit where he bangs it, no judgement. Also a cookie for anyone who figures out what 'THE PLAN' involves :) )


	14. YoU'rE JuSt aS BaD aS GaViN, CoNnOr.......

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a disastrous attempt with Gavin, Tina attempts to talk to Connor. Seems like it would go better than with Gavin? Well.........

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tina gets called out. So does Connor. And then-something...

Tina kicked at a lamppost outside Gavin’s apartment.

‘ _Maybe_ ' she muttered to herself, ‘that was a bad idea.’

Gavin was a messed-up guy at the best of times, and she had thought maybe a ‘no nonsense’ approach would work best, but now she would be lucky if he didn’t just fully murder her at some point.

Well, time for her next port of call- Connor.

She set off across town again, using the GPS on her phone which she had _maybe_ filched a few addresses from. Connor lived almost on the complete opposite side of the city which made the fact she didn’t have a car even more of a pain in the ass- especially with masses of dark rain clouds gathering.

A few subways later, she was standing outside a perfectly ordinary looking house on a quiet street. She noticed that all the blinds were shut, despite it being only midday- a bad sign.

Still upset from her disastrous attempt to recruit Gavin, he took a minute to compose herself befre up and ringing the doorbell.

No answer.

She rang again- no answer.

‘Crap,’ she said aloud, doubtful she could pull of another _kind-of–break- in_ with Connor- especially with the Lieutenant possibly home. After knocking on the door a few times, she decided to try the old fashioned ‘knock on the windows’ thing.

Surprisingly, the first one she tried banging on yielded a possible positive result- the curtains twitched slightly after she knocked, indicating at least _someone_ was home.

‘Connor?’ she said through the glass. ‘Connor, are you there?’

Again she saw movement behind the glass.This time she spotted the telltale blue circle of an android's LED. She stood there, now unsure as to what to do, when she heard the door opening to her left. 

‘Connor!’ she enthused, skipping delightedly to the door only to stop suddenly.

The door was indeed open, and standing peering out of it was a very confused-looking and very _not-wearing-a-shirt_ Connor.

 _Damn, they had not spared any expense at Cyberlife,_ she thought.

‘Officer....Chen?’

‘Yeah,’ she said, focusing on his face with determination.

‘Um, do you need something?’ he asked, his LED a curious yellow.

‘Yeah, actually. I have um, kind of really important news about Nines?’ she told him, holding up her laptop. ‘I need you to-’

All of a sudden Connor’s eyes narrowed.

‘You want me to help with the case,’ he said flatly.

_Okay, please don’t do a Gavin here, Connor._

‘Kind of,’ she said tentatively, feeling as though she had made him mad. ‘Can I come in?’

He stood deliberating, absently swinging the door back and forth on its hinges while Tina stood awkwardly on the porch.

‘I mean,’ he said finally, 'I don’t see why not?’ He opened the door fully. 

_Yesyesyesyesyes !!!!_

Happy this time she was already getting a bit further (i.e.. had actually been _invited_ in), she waved the laptop and went inside, skirting around the android. 

‘Is the lieutenant here?’ she asked, looking around at the scarily neat interior and walking through into an equally clean and bright kitchen, which showed almost no signs of actual living. Weird.

‘No.’ Connor said sharply behind her. 

Aware that Connor was definitely in a bad mood, she took a nervous seat on the edge of the kitchen table, while Connor pulled a jumper on.

He looked......tired, she thought. Though he obviously showed no physical signs, his tangled hair and sad eyes conveyed upset.

Suddenly realizing where she had probably gone wrong earlier, she put down the laptop. ‘How are you?’ she asked as gently as she could.

Connor, who was leaning on the kitchen counter, raised his eyebrows.

‘Not great,’ he said coolly.

_Ah. Yikes._

Tina nodded as sympathetically as possible. He was acting like he used to when he had first arrived at the station- all....well.... _robotic_.

There was a minute of very awkward silence. Tina had never really spent a whole lot of time with Connor, and was unsure if he was normally like this or there was something worng.

He finally broke the silence.

‘Why are you here, Officer Chen?’

Tina suddenly remembered Connor was renowned for his interrogation skills.

‘Well, as you know I was assigned to work the case for Nines and I went to the android place and found out that something really weird is going on and that they have Nines and its honslty so awful he's in a really bad way and maybe-’

Connor raised his hand, his forehead creasing.

‘What?’

Tina chewed on her thumbnail and breathed in.

‘I went to the Android Repair Facility to see Nines.’

Connor widened his eyes slightly.

‘Why?’

Tina shrugged. ‘Because, before...everything, he and Gavin were kind of suspicious of it and now that hes been there for so long I was getting worried...’

She trailed off. Connor had his hand pressed to his forehead and was looking at her like there was something seriously wrong.

‘You're worried about him? ‘

‘Yes,’ she said, confused about where he was going with this.

‘If you were so _worried_ , why did you let Gavin torment him for months, Officer?’

Her stomach dropped. So that’s where he was going. And that’s why he was looking at her with his chin raised in a determined, icy glare.

‘I..I didn’t- didn’t.....’

He didn’t drop his glare.

Tina didn’t know what to say. In fact, she had been thinking about this herself- why _had_ she just let Nines get tortured like that? Had it been fear? Ignorance? Cowardice? Her gut told her the truth--she was afraid of damagin her reputation with the other officer. But thinking that made her feel so horrible she always shut it down immediately.

‘For weeks and weeks, you let Reed and Creed bully him. You said nothing.’ Connor continued, stepping closer. ‘You said _nothing_ , and now you're suddenly worried about him, and you came all the way here to tell me that you have a problem with a repair facility that has an impeccable reputation you can get me to do some case-’

‘Connor, no, that’s not what- I went there, and Nines was destroyed, Connor! It was all creepy and and weird and they had him in some weird lab thing and I took his memories to see if I could help!’

She stood up as Connors LED began spinning. He turned away, bracing his arm on the door.

‘Officer, I have been to this repair facility. Myself. To be repaired. And I'm fine’ he said, his voice low.

Tina looked up at him defiantly.

‘Look, Connor. You were all concerned about Nines when you came in and knocked Gavin’s head in for no reason, so why are you acting like this?’ She crossed her arms.

Connor turned around, digging his hand into his head again.

‘Acting like what? I'm acting completely normal! Just because you have some crazy, far-fetched idea-’

‘Listen to me, Connor!’ Tina burst, slamming the laptop on the table and opening it. ‘I’m not fucking crazy- I saw him, and they had shut him off or something, and he was all wrecked-'

She was furiously opening her files, trying to find the ones she had downloaded from Nines.

‘Officer, I'd like you to leave.’

‘No,’ she snapped. ‘You need to see this.’

‘Officer! You cannot share case files with me. I'm not a police officer,’ Connor said bitterly.

Tina whipped around, shoving her face close to Connor's.

‘I don’t know you very well Connor, but you're acting like Gavin!’

‘Excuse me?’ he exclaimed, a scary, humorless laugh in his voice. ‘ _I'm_ like _Gavin_? I didn’t sit around tormenting a new deviant for months! And I certainly didn’t sit around watching it happen!’

‘Oh, so beating someone up like a violent _maniac_ and then not even bothering to be concerned about an already damaged friend is any better?’

‘I lost my fucking job, Chen! And now I don't even know where Hank is gone, and now you show up, asking for help with some stupid case that I can't even legally help you with, comparing me to _Gavin Reed?_ Calling me a violent maniac? You're the one with a problem here. '

‘So you're going to let Nines die, you cold fucking _plastic_?’

It was out before she knew what she was saying. 

Connors LED turned a horrible, angry red and he stood completely stock still, his furious face now wiped completely blank.

Tina turned away from him acidly, but with shame in her posture. 

It was silent.

_I should apologise apologise you idiot apologise-_

_How do I even apologise for that I can't oh my god how-_

Deliberately not looking at Connor, she clicked on the file from Nines, opening it on the dim screen.

‘ _Look_.’

She heard nothing; Connor was still, a perfect, terrifying statue under the bright white lighting. 

_She had to try again._

‘I'm sorry, Connor,’ she said quietly, looking at the floor, ‘but if you don't help with this you are as bad of a person as Gavin. I know it's illegal to give you files, but this is for... for Nines.’

He moved, finally, lifting his head and staring straight past her at the laptop, which was sitting on the table, green code silently scrolling across the screen. 

‘What is that?’ he said, his voice shaky.

Tina had never felt worse--what the _hell_ was she doing, calling him _that_ and then a _bad person?_

_but the apology-_

_what can you say you've said it now-_

Jesus Christ. She hung her head.

‘The files I downloaded from Nines.’

All of a sudden he stood straight and strode over, Tina jumping back hastily as he reached out for the laptop.

‘What? Is there something?’ she asked, concerned. 

He was staring at the code, his eyes suddenly worried. Tina watched as he retracted the skin on the hand- something she still found freaky- and touched it to the screen.

‘Connor?’

There was a silence as he stood in concentration, holding his plastic hand to the code.

Then he whipped his hand back as if burned, and stumbled back, his blank face suddenly alive with fear.

Tina instinctively reached out and grabbed his shoulder, frozen again.

‘Hey? What is it Connor?’ She shook him lightly. ‘What is it?’

He looked up at her, and she knew then it was bad.

‘Nines.’ he said in a strangled voice, watching the skin recovering his hand. ‘What are they....doing?’ 

They looked at each other, as it started raining outside. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ohhh no..... what's happening to him? what's going on? don't panic--the next chapter will tell us....  
> (Also I want to know what yall think of the characters so far lol)


	15. An Ominous Phone Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor does some investigation, and then recieves a strange phone call.  
> Is he going to jump to conclusions again, or will he have to put faith in ex-detective Gavin Reed?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> our first Connor POV! and he maybe makes a breakthrough....  
> (forgive me not knowing literally anywhere in Detroit, I'm not from there y'all skjskskjssk)

Sitting on the kitchen floor with Tina Chen's computer in his lap, feeling absolutely terrified, was not how Connor anticipated spending a Tuesday evening. 

But this was bad.  
Like, really _really_ bad.

Nines' memories.... he had felt them so clearly. 

_Confusion. Terror. Chaos._

A little known fact about androids--even if you completely shut them down, they will continue to record information about their bodies. Even images can sometimes be extracted, if they were in stasis- a semi-shutdown state. 

  
An out of focus man, wearing lipstick and wielding a dripping scalpel.

A white tiled wall stained blue and red.

His own hands grabbing at someone, his own chest, and then so much thirium- a hole in his torso-

red blood everywhere-

-inexplicably, a child, _a human child,_ holding his hand-  
and then another android, his head split in half-  
-and then blackness.

The diagnostics, while limited, showed severe critical damage to his thirium system, as well as the removal of several parts- a regulator, some of his leg and arm components, bizarrely an eye, several missing nervous system wires, in addition to the hearing and speech components he had lost originally. 

At this rate there would be nothing left of RK900. 

Connor felt scared. He felt like when he was standing on the broadcasting building in the snow, looking down at the whole of Detroit and imagining falling to his death, reeling back from the railing. The first real emotion he had ever felt. 

Tina Chen was rocking back and forth at the kitchen chair. He didn't want to talk to her right now.

Connor had endured a lot of insults. A lot.

Over a thousand, if he was correct.

But getting called a stone cold plastic, a bad person, and being compared to _Gavin Reed_ all in the same breath?

He flexed his fingers and continued trawling through the code for any more useful information. Most of it was the same after the initial memories--simple diagnostics about all the haywire going on in Nines' body.

'Connor?'

He didn't look up. This was more important.

He had showed her Nines' memories on the laptop screen, and she had watched silently, her eyes disturbed. Since then, she had spent the last hour sitting on the chair, watching him. 

'Connor, I have to go.'

He looked up at her. She was biting her lip and looking at him nervously, as though expecting him to hit her or something.

 _A violent maniac_.

'Okay,' he said tersely. 'Can I keep this?' He gestured to the laptop. 

'Um, sure,' she said.

A pause.

'Should I come back?'

Connor stood up, awkwardly unfolding his legs. He stared at her frightened face.

Was that fear of him, or fear for Nines? 

Connor hadn't been relying on his android mechanics so much recently; namely, preconstruction, since it had failed him so dismally. But he used it now, to plan out several possibilities. 

_1)_ He could just take the laptop and try to save Nines himself. Illegal, but 79% success prediction. Then a 57% chance he and Chen would be arrested for leaking files. 

_2)_ He could work with Chen. Not completely illegal, since she was still a police officer, but that brought success rate down to 54%. But he wouldn't get arrested. And he had access to DPD resources.   
And she was a human- an advantage to have during the current climate of hostility toward androids. 

_3)_ Ignore it. 

No.

He did care about Nines, and though Chen's biting words were still replaying in his brain, he was a good person. 

He hoped. 

'Yes,' he said finally. 'Come back tomorrow.' 

A little of the tension drained form Chen's face. 

'Okay,' she said tentatively, making her way to the door, still avoiding looking him in the eye. 'I'll see you then... around 11?'

'Okay.'

'Bye. ' 

The front door clicked as it closed, and Connor sat down with the computer again.   
He had two goals--find Nines, and get him back from whatever hellish laboratory he appeared to be in. 

As he attempted to extract more memory from the pages and pages of abstract, error-laden code as fast as he could, he wondered-

_Why didn't she apologise?_

And what were they going to do with Nines, when they rescued him?

He typed 'West Detroit Android Facility' into a search engine. 

Yes. He had definitely been here before.   
And it wasn't all creepy and weird. They had fixed him up and he had gone home. 

So what on earth was going on with Nines??

He sat at the computer well into the night, feeling drained, when suddenly his phone lit up and his visuals displayed an incoming call from an unknown number. 

At 3:46 am? 

Odd. 

He cleared the notification and answered the cellphone--he had realised that talking on the phone in his head freaked people out, so he had bought an actual physical phone to use. 

(He quite liked it, actually.) 

'Hello?' 

' _Nines, Nines- I- you gotta come- his eyes-'_

Connor held the phone away from his ear, frowning. The voice was tinny, too far away to hear clearly, but it sounded suspiciously like....

 _Reed_?? 

_'His eyes, oh my god, you gotta come, plastic, you gotta_ -' 

Though slurring and stuttering, clearly drunk, it was definitely Gavin Reed. Connor was about to hang up when he noticed the call location-

 _South Lilley Road, Detroit West._

The same address currently on display in the 'maps' section of the browser. 

' _There's blood and shit- you gotta come, hey, hey now- Connor?'_

Reed was still babbling on the phone, barely speaking English, sounding as if he was talking to himself, but Connor could hear the horror in his strangled voice. 

' _Reed_? What's going on?' 

' _Its- you, you, you have to--Nines_ -' 

Connor didn't trust Gavin Reed as far as he could throw him (bad expression, Connor could toss him into oblivion), but Reed was clearly distressed. 

And he was at the Android Repair Facility, for some unfathomable reason. 

Aware he was jumping to conclusions about Reed again, Connor grabbed the car keys off the counter. 

_You're just as bad as him_. 

No. He wasn't. And he could prove it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> are we going to finally save Nines?? find out in the next chapter..... (slight blood/gore warning- hopefully it won't be too bad for our poor Tin Can....)


	16. Unnaturally Natural

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW: BLOOD & KIND OF MILD GORE  
> (its mainly just freaky but if u don't like blood/weird stuff please skip this chapter)
> 
> A drunken Gavin has a most unlikely run in with Nines- to whom something really, really bad has happened.......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again-if u don't like blood please skip!!!!
> 
> oh, no- what's happened to Nines???  
> ***********************

Gavin was drunk.

Not great for starters, but he was also _lost_.

Detroit was a pretty big city, even during the day, so wandering around in an alcoholic stupor in the dead of night was not one of the _best_ ideas he ever had.

'Not that you ever have great ideas,' he said aloud to himself, his voice creeping him out as it echoed around the dark street, barely lit by some flickering streetlamps. 

It had been about two or three hours since he had first ventured out of his apartment after drinking through every bottle he had stashed in the otherwise empty kitchen cupboards--which was quite a lot. 

(He liked to be prepared.) 

'Hey, maybe Connor will like me now I'm an alcoholic!' 

He laughed to himself.

'Aaaand now I'm talking to myself.'

 _Wow, I've completely lost my mind_ , some part of his brain was telling him.

He continued walking down the streets, taking random lefts and rights and hoping he's just miraculously end up somewhere he recognised.

Instead, he found himself on a dilapidated street that had some kind of terrifying modern structure casting a malevolent shadow on the crumbling terraced houses beside it.

'Weird ass building,' he said, stopping to look at the looming concrete behemoth.  
There was no signage on it (not that he would have been able to read it), but the completely faceless exterior was lit up by several fluorescent lights. It reminded him of some kind of sci-fi film.

'Weird,' he said again and continued down the street, 'weird, weird, weird.'

 _Bang_.

A noise behind him- he jumped and tripped over an uneven bit of pavement, scraping his hands.

' _Ow_ , what the fuck?' he mumbled, looking around at the swaying streetlights.

There was nobody there.

'Hey!' he called into the darkness.

And then, appearing from the darkness was something so bizzare he started laughing again _\--Connor_.

'Heyyy, Connor!' he slurred, 'What the fuck are you doing here?'

Connor said nothing.

Gavin began stumbling over to him, cursing the uneven pavement. For some reason seeing the fucking android was the most hilarious thing he could have imagined.

'So, what brings you here? Here to break more bones?' He did an exaggerated jazz hands. 'Hey, have you guessed yet? I'm pretending to be your drunk ass liet- wait, what the fuck?' 

As Gavin neared the android his vision. began to slowly bring him into focus more. He realised that he was actually too tall to be Connor, so it must be-

' _Nines_?'

Gavin stood, staring. The android took a lurching step forward, when his knees buckled and he collapsed on the pavement.

Gavin staggered over.  
'Heyy, Nines, is that you- oh my god!'

Gavin covered his mouth in horror.

The android was barely recognisable as an android--parts of the skin missing, bits of wires sticking out of him in random places, wearing the same shirt he had been wearing when Gavin saw him last.

He was also bleeding heavily as he lay on the pavement.

Something was _really_ wrong. 

It took Gavin a moment to notice through the haze in his brain.

 _He was bleeding_. 

'Is that... _blood_?'

The android said nothing, but reached a plastic hand out slowly and grabbed the end of Gavin's jeans.

 _Oh my God. Oh my god oh my god oh my god._

The android was bleeding red.

Human _blood_.

Pouring from dark holes in his wrists, crimson streaking down his arms onto the ground, his hand red and sticky where he was holding Gavin's trouser leg. 

Gavin crashed backwards onto the ground.

'Oh my god, oh my _god_ ,' he mouthed, unable to produce the words.

Nines looked up at him, and Gavin stared horrified into his face.

Still covered in a blue lattice of scars, his LED was gone, and his hair was matted with a mixture of thirium and real blood.

But all Gavin noticed was his eyes- one the usual piercing blue, the other inexplicably brown, in a scraped, thirium coated socket. 

Nines blinked, his mouth moving but no sound coming out. Gavin was half sitting on the pavement, watching him, completely aghast.

'What the fuck--oh shit, what the actual fuck is - oh my god.'

He felt dangerously like he was going to be sick.

Nines was still moving, but barely.

He blinked again, and Gavin saw the-the brown eye, tearful and bloodshot. 

Imperfect. Natural. Flawed. 

_A human eye_. 

This was too much for Gavin's completely intoxicated mind, and suddenly it was a conetely different moment and he was lying on his side on the ground, facing way from the android. 

He sat up, his head feeling, and looked down at the shaking android, who was lying in a pool of thirium and blood, twitching. 

'Nines? Nines?' 

Gavin managed to crawl over to his side and squeamishly turned the androids head toward him. 

Somehow he was concious, and he looked up at Gavin with an expression he hoped never to see on a person ever again. 

'Oh, _fuck_ , oh my God,' Gavin whispered, his vision swimming. The light from the building was only illuminating a small patch of ground, everything in his peripherals black adn empty. 

He sat hunched next to Nines for what felt both like seconds and hours, frantically wondering where the android had even appeared from like this, the street utterly empty; before finally a sober thought broke through--

'Phone!' he cried, startling himself with his own voice. 'Um. yeah, here-' 

He fished out his new replacement phone from his pocket with uncooperative fingers that had specks of blue and red decorating them, and after a second of not knowing his new password, and Nines spasming next to him, he typed in 911.

Then he stopped just before he pressed the call button. 

'They won't help, no, no, I know, somebody would fucking.... I.. don't _know_?'

He had some logical reason subconsciously stopping him from calling the DPD, but his drunken brain was unable to call it to mind. 

Then he remembered somebody else--someone he would never ever have called for any other reason. 

Nines suddenly reached out and grabbed his hand this time, his white plastic fingers clutching him so tightly he couldn't let go. 

'Hey, hey,' he said distractedly, not knowing whether to himself or Nines. 'Its um, wait-' 

He found the number at the bottom of his blurry, too- bright contacts list, a remnant of some stupid work group chat or something, and pressed the fuzzy 'phone' icon. 

Nines watched him as he spoke, his robot eye and human eye staring at Gavin, his body juddering epileptic-like at random intervals. 

He didn't let go of Gavin's hand. 

And after Gavin had hung up he sat there on the deserted street, talking to an unhearing Nines--the ramblings of the inebriated-but he _stayed,_ the sky dark and unforgiving, snow beginning to fall. 

_************_

'Gavin? _Gavin_?' 

Gavin jerked awake and looked around wildly. Connor was standing in front of him- real Connor, his hands stained with thirium _and_ human blood. 

'What the hell-' Gavin started, but Connor cut him off. He couldn't read his face--it was too dark, his vision too unclear. 

'Get in the car.' 

Gavin attempted to stand up but the world lurched sickeningly and he was crouched on the pavement again, breathing heavily. 

'Nines?' he half gasped. 

Connor put out a hand.

'In the car,' he said shortly, making a 'hurry up' gesture. 

He flinched backwards, but he grabbed onto Connor arm and allowed himself to be led into an unfamiliar car, where he slumped in the passenger seat and was dimly aware of flashing lights and buildings streaking by. 

'Is Nines-' 

'Don't talk, Reed,' he heard from the faceless figure at the steering wheel. 

'But- but his _eyes_ -' 

'Shh. I'm taking him to your place. I can help, I think. There's thirium and stuff in the back.' 

Gavin heard him distantly, as though he was a million miles away.

 _The blood, oh my god_. 

He stopped talking to Connor, muttering about blood to himself as they sped through the city. 

'You drive crazy fast,' he said absently, unaware he was even speaking, trying to turn to see if Nines was okay, when blackness hit him and he knew no more, until he bolted upright on the floor of his bedroom, his hands bloody, the kitchen lights on. 

'Nines?' 


	17. What Are We Going To Do About Nines?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW//BLOOD AND MILD GORE (just kind of gross mentions of... organs and things... haha..) 
> 
> Connor has discovered some very disturbing things about what happened to Nines while attempting to reactivate him.  
> Oh, and Gavin is annoying, as usual.

'What the fuck! '

Connor jerked his head up from the kitchen table to see a dishevelled Gavin Reed standing in the kitchen in front of him, still wearing the same clothes as when Connor had not-so-gently deposited him on the floor of his bedroom yesterday. 

His systems still loading after barely just shutting down into stasis, Connor blinked at him blankly for a few seconds. 

'What?'

'What do you mean, what?! ' exclaimed Reed, waving his hands dramatically, 'where's Nines?' 

Oh. 

Connor stood up and caught sight of his own reflection in the kitchen cabinet opposite him. He looked like he had just been involved in about seventeen violent crimes.

Reed was looking at him anxiously, expectantly. 

'I put him in the living room. He-' 

'Did you fix him?' 

Connor noticed Gavin's dilated pupils and unbalanced posture and realised he was probably hung over. 

_Great. More problems._

'Well, I really..... couldn't do a whole lot,' Connor admitted, looking at the floor. (This was their first proper interaction in a while- since Connor had broken his nose, which was now crooked, the scar on the bridge even more pronounced than normal, and it was a whole lot more horrible than Connor had anticipated.) 'I didn't really know how-' 

'What the _fuck_?' Gavin cut in again. 'Is he dead or not, plastic?' 

Connor shook his head. 

'Not dead, no, but....' he trailed off. 'You had better come and see for yourself.' 

Connor led Gavin across his own apartment, the floor splashed with drips of thirium visible only to him. 

'I know where my own fucking rooms are,' Gavin muttered, wrenching open the door of the living room. 

Connor watched him as if in slow motion as he took a lightning fast step back, his eyes widening in horror. 

'I though... what the fuck?' Reed stammered, surveying the scene.

Nines was lying on the floor on top of a pile of scattered piano music. He looked absolutely horrific-- skin stained red with white plastic gleaming through, a couple of new wires snaking under his damp, torn shirt that Connor had attached to a makeshift thirium IV line, (which, Connor knew was a deeply ironic concept.) The android's eyes were closed, the sockets around them scraped as though by a wild animal, and he was deathly still, arranged like someone lying stiff and cold in a casket. 

'What's with the.... why is there _blood_?' Gavin whispered, uncharacteristically shocked as he leaned weakly against the doorframe. 

Connor had no idea. 

The night working on Nines, trying to stop irreparable damage, had been near impossible. 

Every time Connor attempted reactivation, he would discover some new science fiction horror that he had barely been able to look at. 

Connor had seen a lot. He also knew a lot. Pretty much everything, actually. 

But this was some kind of disturbing, _nightmarish_ science experiment had left Nines a freak of a machine. 

Real, bloody _human_ veins connected to a multitude of hastily- crafted mechanical devices that were fusing thirium and blood together, both running sluggishly through Nines' body. 

The eye. Wired into his brain. 

And-

'The heart,' Connor muttered, unaware of Gavin looking up at him in horrified fascination. 'The heart.' 

'What about it, dipshit?' Gavin asked, now taking a step forward into the room and gazing down at the ruined android, whose creepy combination eyes were now mercifully closed. 

Connor didn't answer him. 

'What's _wrong_ with him?' Reed asked again, as he bent unsteadily to peer at the contents of the thirium IV Connor had cobbled together from some spare thirium in an effort to restart some of Nines'... machine components. 'What did they do to.... I remember.. his eyes?' 

'The heart,' Connor mumbled. 

'Huh?' 

'There's--someone has... it looks like someone has... attempted to combine a... _human_ anatomy with his mechanical ones,' Connor said, still quiet but clearer this time, as clear as he could manage. 

Reed covered his mouth with his hands, almost unbalancing himself again, clearly making a strained effort to conceal the shock in his face. 

'Shit.' 

For some reason he shakily picked up one of the sheets of paper beside the shut-down android. Connor caught a flash of a neon Post-it note, before Gavin crammed it in the back pocket of his filthy jeans. 

'Shit, shit, shit.' he was mouthing repeatedly to himself. 

_Reed is trying to hide that he is disturbed,_ Connor noticed _. I wonder why._

'What are you going to do?' 

'I don't know,' Connor replied, pacing over to the window and then back across the room in long, agitated strides. 'I don't know.' 

Gavin shot another half glance at Nines, and then glared at Connor. 

'You can't leave him _here_!' 

Rising heart rate. Not good. But Connor was annoyed by his accusatory tone; the implication that _he_ was the problem here. 

'Reed, what do you propose we do? This is some kind of horrifying unethical experiment and we can't take him back to the Repair Centre, for obvious reasons, and unless you want me to bring him to the junk heap he has to stay here until I can try and fix him!' he snapped. 

Reed raised his chin sharply at Connor's outburst, eyes darkening. 

' So you're going to play engineer on this fucking..... _freak_ android? You don't fool me, Connor, ' Gavin snapped, storming over,' You have no fucking clue what you're doing with it, do you? We _should_ just call the fucking police!' 

'You weren't so keen to call them when you called me last night!' 

'What the fuck do you think they'd do when they saw me with him-' he gestured wildly at Nines- 'black out drunk in the street?' 

Sensing this was going to turn violent, Connor held his hands up. 

'Look, Reed, I'll admit I don't really know what to do right now, but the best idea I can come up with is to just keep him here until I can figure out how to reactivate him.' 

Reed looked up at Connor for a moment, chewing his lip, before rolling his eyes and turning away in concession. 

'Fine,' he muttered. 

They stood in silence at the edge of the room, both looking at Nines. 

_This is worse than I imagined,_ Connor thought, _and I can't fix it._

'Ww need to call Officer Chen,' Connor said, breaking the silence. 

Gavin reeled around again, incredulous, riled up again. 

'Why the hell would you want to call that fucking brown-nose, you stupid plastic?' 

'Because she's on the case!' Connor said impatiently. He really was sick of Gavins stupid hungover attitude that was making it hard for him to concentrate on what to do about Nines. 'She already had a lead on the Repair Facility!' 

'A lead _I gave her_ , dipshit!' 

'I am _not_ having another back and forth with you, Reed.' 

They glared at each other, Connor's LED yellow, like a pair of siblings having a nasty dispute over the remote control. 

Connor pressed his hand into his temple. He was going to end up with an indent there, based on all the stress he was getting pummeled with lately. 

'I'm going to work on him again. Call Chen.' he said shortly and retracted the skin on his hands again. 

He walked away from Reed and kneeled next to Nines in the piles of whispering paper, not bothered to continue with another argument. 

'I'm going have a fucking shower.' Gavin snapped.

Connor heard Reed storming around the apartment behind him as he kneeled next to Nines, sliding open the main panel on his schest again and sitting, utterly at a loss, staring at the half a human heart that had been grafted onto his android one. 

In the back of his mind he couldn't stop himself thinking-

_-is this even worth it?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for missing the last few updates I was writing three (3) fics about the supernatural finale........  
> anyway.. this is a dynamic duo that is DeFIniTeLy not going to ✨beat each other up✨ again....
> 
> BRING HIM TO THE DOCTOR CONNOR YOU'RE NOT AN ENGINEER??? what are they gonna do..........


	18. No, Drinking More Will Not Cure Your Hangover, and Will Probably Dig Up Your Secret Past Instead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor is trying too hard to play doctor, but he finds out something about Gavin that might help.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will these two ever stop fighting and do what's best for Nines?  
> Of course not ❤️

_I'm going to kill someone,_ thought Gavin _, and it's probably going to be myself_.

He was drinking again despite a painful headache, vaguely remembering some old Irish saying about 'the poison being the cure,' (or something like that), and sitting in his bed, listening to Connor banging around and doing God knows what with the abomination that was Nines in his living room.

He threw himself backwards on the bed in despair. This was _so_ fucking messed up.

He had really thought getting fired because of the stupid plastic was the worst thing that could have happened, but now he was probably going to get arrested or something for having the half dead thing in his house.

He threw a malevolent glance at his phone, which was sitting ominously on his dresser.

Call Chen?

'Like hell I will,' he muttered, taking another gulp of whatever random alcohol he had pulled out of the back of the kitchen cupboard. He didn't even know what it was.

It it was at desperate times like this he really wondered how some people just went through life without _any_ kind of vice, and felt a surprising although sickening empathy for fucking Hank Anderson. 

There was still blood faintly visible under his fingernails, and his stomach turned at the vivid imagery of Nines and his awful, creepy human eye and, the state of him lying on top of all his sheet music. 

(Somehow he still found time to be annoyed with Connor over messing it all up like that.) 

  
What the _hell_ was the dipshit doing? He wasn't a fucking engineer, or a doctor, and yeah, he knew a lot, but he was hardly going to be able to fix _this_. Calling the DPD was seeming like a more and more attractive option every minute, despite whatever consequences that would almost certainly ruin Gavin's life all over again. 

Unless..... 

' _No_!' he said aloud, surprising himself with the voracity of his own voice, dispelling the unwelcome idea. 

_I am not doing that, not at all, never never never._

_Ah, but now the thought is there_...... 

'Fuck off,' Gavin said to himself, just as the door of his bedroom opened and Connor stuck his head in gingerly. 

'Um, who?' he asked, peering behind Gavin as if expecting to see someone else in the room. 

'There's no one here dipshit, I'm talking to myself,' Gavin said irritably. 'What do you want?' 

Connor looked down.   
'I... haven't really made any progress, but I kind of'.. ' he swept his bloody plastic hand down the front of his filthy shirt,'..... need a shower? '

' For _fuck's_ sake. ' 

' I'm sorry, it's just-'

' Shut up, ' Gavin snapped.' You can use the shower, plastic. I'll go move my existential crisis to the kitchen. '

He snatched his phone off the dresser and pushed past a relieved looking Connor to the kitchen, where he sat down heavily at the table with his head down. 

_Fucking androids,_ he thought _, are ruining_ _my life._

He sat listening to the hum of the shower for a while, trying to avoid thinking anymore about Nines. 

Which really wasnt working. 

_Fuck it,_ he thought, after tearing his gaze away from the living room door for the millionth time _, I gotta look_. 

He walked unsteadily toward the door (he was beginning to think maybe he had misheard that old Irish saying), and opened the door to the dark room. 

The irony smell of human blood hit him immediately, making him gag slightly as he flipped the light switch.

He saw that Connor had partially covered the android with his jacket, so that all he could see was his legs, bent weirdly on the blood-spattered music underneath him. 

_Oh, fucking hell,_ he thought suddenly _, the Tin Can's gonna die._

'Hey, Gavin?' 

He jumped at Connor's shout behind him (he really _was_ getting jumpy lately).

'What?' he yelled across the apartment. 

'Can I take some of your clothes?' Connor's voice was apprehensive. 

'Sure, whatever,' Gavin shouted irritably. 'But they're not gonna fit _you_!' 

He shit the light off in the room and slammed the door again, returning to the kitchen to find a damp Connor emerging from his bedroom.

' So, big Kamski fan? ' 

Shards of icy fear stabbed through Gavin's stomach.

Connor stood in the doorway, grinning and wearing a damp, University of Colbridge football jersey over a way-too-short pair of Gabin's jeans. 

Sure enough, the name _Kamski_ was emblazoned over the number 7 on the breast pocket of the shirt. 

'Where the fuck did you get that?' Gavin spluttered. 

_Nonononono_ -

'It was just a random one I took from your closet,' Connor said, confused, the grin wiped away. 

Gavin had never more wanted to punch himself in the face. 

_You fucking idiot! You let him go through your stuff like that?! What is wrong with you?_

Gavin turned toward the counter and shakily grabbed the nearest bottle of liquor he could find. He was trying to hide his face from Connor, sure he would see the anxiety radiating from him. 

'Reed?' 

'Um, yeah, I think that was a.. uh.. gag gift or something?' he said, desperately trying to think of some kind of better reason for owning that shirt. 

'Really,' Connor said, nonplussed.' That's a weird kind of gift. It's a real jersey. '

' How the fuck would you know that? '

' I like football,' Connor answered, sounding more and more confused at Gavin' s reactions. 'Also, you went there, right? I thought you'd know that?' 

'As if I played football, dipshit,' Gavin said, grabbing his now overfill glass off the counter and attempting to escape past Connor to his bedroom. 

'Well, okay,' said Connor. 'Although,' he continued, 'you do look kind of like him.' 

'Hah,' Gavin said as scathingly as he could manage through his rising anxiety. 

'No,' Connor said thoughtfully, his LED a yellow colour that was making Gavin scared, 'You actually do.' 

'Shut the fuck up, dipshit,' Gavin snapped, skirting around Connor and making a beeline  
for his bedroom. 

He slammed the door to his room violently, catching a last glimpse of a puzzled Connor, still standing there wearing the fucking sweatshirt. 

He slid down against the door, clutching the glass of vodka that was sloshing over his hands. 

Fucking hell. 

No one could ever find out about _that_. Never ever ever.   
He had not gone through all this shit for _him_ to end up back in his life. 

_I wish you were dead,_ he thought bitterly, fingering the scar on his nose, and thinking about possibly the only person who could save the android lying on his floor; the person who had caused all these problems in the first place. 

**_***************************_ **

Connor was trawling though old social media archives in his mind, his LED pulsing irregularly as he tried to stave off stasis for another few minutes. 

He was too curious about why Gavin had reacted to the sweater so angrily like that- it was unhinged, even for Reed.

 _There had to be some kind of connection,_ he reasoned _, between Reed and Kamski, that had Gavin so upset._

Also, Connor was kind of nosey. 

And so he was going through any old outdated platforms he could, searching for any correlation between the two names. 

Connor had not been made a Detective for no reason, and sure enough he came across something shocking.

A picture of two little kids sitting on a grassy lawn, uploaded to the redundant 'Instagram' over twenty years ago by someone named Evelyn Johnson.

Two identical little kids, laughing, revealing missing front teeth. 

One with a scar on his nose that was clearly a tiny Gavin Reed, next to an identical little boy, whose smile bore an uncanny resemblance to the man who had created Connor. 

'Brothers,' Connor whispered into the dark. 

_Brothers?_


	19. A New Set of Eyes And.... Kamski?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow? Did Connor actually.... get Nines working?  
> What's he going to do?  
> And why does he keep talking about Gavin's........ lookalike?

' _Reed_! Hey, Gavin, come here!'

Gavin woke up abruptly, banging his head on the top of his bed as he jolted upright, seriously pissed off.

This was the first time he had finally, _actually_ gotten to sleep in a week- he had found it extremely difficult to adjust to Connor banging around the apartment at all hours of the night. 

'Fuck!' he yelped, stumbling out of bed and throwing the door open. ' _Jesus_ , plastic what's the matter?'

'It's Nines,' came Connor's strained voice from the living room. 'Hurry up!' 

Gavin sleepily walked across to the living room, entering to find a very distressed and bloody-looking Connor, with his hand jammed inside the chest of a miraculously conscious Nines, who was blinking rapidly and jerking as though having a seizure. 

'Holy fuck!' Gavin exclaimed. 'You got him working!' 

'Uhh-' Connor said through gritted teeth. 'I have to...keep these two wires together... can you hold him still?' 

'Me?' 

'Yes, you!' 

Feeling quite unqualified for getting involved in anything to do with this, Gavin got down on the floor and gingerly put a hand on the Nines' shoulder. 

'I said _hold_ him!' 

Gavin reluctantly complied, pinning the shaking android to the floor as best he could while Connor manouvered his plastic hand inside his chassis.

Gavin was still creeped out by Nines, despite having watched Connor's attempts to reactivate him for a few days now. It didn't help that his eyes were open now, revealing the creepy human one Gavin was really unaccustomed to seeing in the android's mechanically perfect face. 

But he was awake? How? 

'How did you do that?' he asked Connor in amazement, forgetting to be mean for a second, as Connor looked inside the cavity of Nines' chest, trying in vain to see what two bits he had miraculously held together and restarted him. 

'I have no idea,' he snapped, 'but I've got to try and... hang on.... got it!' 

Connor withdrew his hand and Nines abruptly stopped shaking under Gavin's hands, lying still on the floor again, but this time looking around, his eyes wide and terrified.

'Hey, plastic, we got you working!' Gavin laughed gleefully, relieved he was not going to have to keep what was practically a corpse in his apartment anymore. 

Nines didn't react, still staring up at Gavin and Connor, who were both leaning over him in gleeful surprise. 

'Hey, it's okay,' Connor said soothingly, smiling widely. 'You're okay.' 

Nines began attempting to sit up, despite the haphazard tangle of wires poking out of his bloody open chassis. Gavin put a restraining hand on his shoulder again. 

'Um, maybe don't do that? ' he said, before suddenly remembering something important. 

'Oh shit,' he said, looking up at Connor, 'He can't hear us!' 

Connors LED flashed yellow. 'Oh, right,' he said, and held his hands out in front of Nines.

He began signing very slowly to the other android, who was still attempting to push back against Gavin, watching him with wild, fearful eyes. 

_Damn,_ thought Gavin, somehow irritated _; I practically saved your life, and now you're all terrified of me?_

Connor was still attempting to say something in ASL that Nines was ignoring, and Gavin suddenly had a lightbulb moment. 

'Hey, I'll just send him a text!' he said, pulling out his phone. 

'Um, alright,' Connor said apprehensively. 'Please be nice.' 

'Why does everyone act like I'm going to kill him all the time?' Gavin muttered, ignoring Connor's deadpan stare. 

He scrolled down to find the android's number, the last message he had sent him almost a month ago now, typing out a new one. 

_Hi_

' _Hi_?' Connor said, looking over his shoulder, 'That's it?' 

'Well, what the hell else should I say? Welcome to the Matrix?' 

'Fine,' Connor said, putting his hand onto Nines' chest and sliding shut the panel that concealed the whole gory mess inside. 

'Im not sure if he's going to stay active for long, to be honest, since I have no idea what I did... but we can hope for the best. 

_Sheesh. Optimistic_. 

....... 

Gavin watched Nines blinking rapidly and the speech bubble on his phone as the android received his message.

Then he lifted his arm jerkily and began moving his fingers in some kind of hazy pattern. 

'What's he doing?' Gavin said, puzzled.

Connor was watching him closely. 

'Spelling,' he said. 'I think that's a.. K?' 

Gavin wondered why the android would rather force himself through signing when he could easily just send Gavin a message. 

_I'll take that as personal,_ he thought, as Nines' spasming fingers formed several more letters. He then dropped his hand back down, still staring fearfully at Gavin. 

Connor flinched. 

'What'd he say, dipshit?' Gavin pressed, recovering some of his usual sarky tone. 

'Um...' Connor said, seemingly reluctant to respond. 

'Look, if it's about me I don't care.' 

'Kamski. He said _Kamski_.'

Gavin felt the world grow cold a knot tightening in his stomach. 

'And why the fuck did he say that?' Gavin said, attempting to sound nonchalant. 

Connor looked at Gavin in a slightly - too-perceptive way that made him feel as though Connor knew something he didn't. 

They hadn't really talked much since the 'football shirt' incident, but Gavin had caught Connor watching him creepily a few times, a strange discerning look on his face.

He had not mentioned it again, or worn the shirt. 

'I don't know,' he said simply, 'but I'm going to try explain to him what's going on.' 

Gavin sat back, leaning against the sofa and fidgeting with a stray print of Debussy's _Arabesque No. 1_ while Connor spoke to Nines. 

The android was sitting up slightly, still looking like a mess in the bloody, torn open shirt he was wearing, but more alert, less afraid, as Connor talked to him. It was so weird to see him awake after getting used to him just being a weird science project in the living room. Hard to believe he was just activated by random change like that. 

Gavin found himself watching the two different coloured eyes, trying to read the expression there that was normally given away by the now-absent LED at this temple. 

_It's kind of pretty,_ Gavin thought _, looking at the contrasting eyes. He looks less.... robot-ish._

_What the fuck? Stop thinking that._

Gavin couldn't read sign language, something that annoyed him as Nines began signing back to Connor, gesturing toward Gavin a couple of times. 

His annoyance reached a peak when Connor began looking weirdly at Gavin as well. 

'Is he talking about me?' Gavin found himself saying to a surprised looking Connor, who paused with his hands in the middle of a sentence. 

'Kind of?' he said shortly. 

'What does that mean?' 

'He...' Connor trailed off. Thankfully _he_ still had the tell-tale LED, and Gavin could tell by it that he was trying to think of a way to explain whatever it was Gavin clearly don't want to hear. 

Nines looked at him then, and this time it was more curious then frightened. 

_Ping_. 

Gavin phone lit up on the floor where it was still lying open on the message he had sent to Nines. Now there was a new one under it: 

_Kamski?_

'What the fuck?' he said aloud to Nines, staring at him as the android looked somwhat expectantly at Connor. Connor looked instead at Gavin. 

'What is it?' 

'Hes talking about.. about Ka-Kamski', ' he said, hating the stupid stutter that occasionally afflicted him when he was nervous. 

Connor flinched again, his forehead creasing up.' He's probably confused, ' he said,' because you look just like him. '

'I do not! ' snapped Gavin. He typed angrily on the screen, ignoring Connor's meaningful side-eye. 

_It's gavin. reed_

Nines made a brief gesture to Conor, who shook his head, still half looking at Gavin. 

_Thank you._

_for what?_

_I heard you found me._

_yeah. np._

Gavin almost laughed despite the sickening tension in his stomach. It was insane to be having this conversation through text message, while literally sitting in front of each other. The speech bubble appeared again, indicating the android was typing something, but it disappeared as he was interrupted. 

'So,' said Connor loudly, standing up and yanking one of the wires sticking into some thirium-filled device out of Nine's arm. 'I don't know how long he will stay working for, but do you reckon we could clean him up?' 

'What? Like... in the shower?' Gavin spluttered. 

'Yeah?' Connor said, raising his eyebrows. 

Nines sat up fully on the floor, his scarred face looking quizzically at Gavin. 

'Um, yeah, you can do that,' Gavin said hastily. 'I gotta... um.. get something to eat. I haven't eaten in like... _days_.'

(As he said this he realised it was actually true- he hadn't noticed through all the stress and alcohol.) 

Connor nodded, the knowing look crossing his face again briefly.

'I'll get him some of your clothes. If that's alright, ' he said. 

Was Gavin imagining that double meaning? 

_If you're not going to freak out like a lunatic this time._

'Take the ones out of the laundry, ' he replied, standing up and shooting one last look at Nines, who was still staring at him with mismatched, piercing eyes; unreadable, mysterious. 

Gavin left the apartment with that same mismatched look on his mind the whole way to the store and back, anxiously wondering why Nines had been talking about.... _him_. 

_This is definitely going to go all wrong_ , he thought miserable, the euphoric feeling from Nines' reactivation long vanished, as he went back into the apartment apartment, unknowing as to what to expect. 

But- at least Nines was...well _....alive_. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Amazing--they actually made some progress. Poor Gavin. He really lives in a state of constant anxiety, huh?


	20. The Lookalike and The Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines wakes up, terrified to find himself with Kamski.  
> Then terrified to find himself with Gavin.  
> And- why did they do that to him?
> 
> What the hell happened?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> our first Nines POV in a while! Funnily enough, he gets on better with Gavin in this one than ever before--despite finding out all the crap that's happened.......

_Kamski_?

_No. No no no no no._

Not again.

Nines had finally woken up, and the first thing he had fully registered was Elijah Kamski , pinning him down to the floor.

Software errors that were full of errors themselves were obscuring most of his vision, which for some reason only worked on one side, but he could clearly see the Cyberlife founder staring at him. 

And he thought- _what are you going to do to me now?_

His memories were such a jumble, pixellated and glitchy and over half of them completely missing, but the man had been there, in the lab, and he vividly remembered him stabbing something into his chest and then he was holding his blue- dripping heart, and then nothing for a very long time. 

And then he saw- _Connor_? 

Shaking and unable to stop himself, he realised that it _was_ in fact Connor, who was covered in blood for some reason, and was the one with his hand manipulating something inside his chassis. 

_Connor was there. But Kamski?_

Then the shaking stopped and Kamski and Connor started speaking, Nines unable to hear anything but a very slight static.

He stared, terrified, at Kamski. Something looked weird about him, something he wasn't able to retrieve properly from his mind, but he was different now, something slightly _off_ about him. 

Connor was signing but he was too scared to watch, trying to make his stupid broken body move itself, when he received a text message that miraculously flashed across his blurry, half missing visual display.

_Hi_.

Sender- Gavin Reed?

Who?

And then he remembered, and realised why this man looked _off_.

_It wasn’t_ _him_. This was someone else.

Gavin Reed. Supreme bully and all-round terrible guy. A memory was becoming clear—Reed punching him in the face, yelling for some unknown reason.

Wanting to be sure, he tried his best to lift his hand, finding he was regaining use of his limbs quite rapidly, and clumsily spelled the letter ‘K.’

Connor was watching him and nodded, saying something to the other man, who had moved out of range of his diminished eyeline.

_A-M-S-K-I_

This time Connor shook his head.

‘No. His brother. Reed.’

_Brother_? What?

‘Brother?’

‘Yes.’

'I don't understand,' he said, looking at Gavin Reed, who was becoming a clearee figure in his mind. 

‘It’s kind of complicated’ Conor signed shortly, with a glance at Gavin Reed. He said something, but Nines couldn't see the other man to gauge his reaction. Connor waved a hand dismissively at the man. 

‘I’ll fill you in on what happened,’ he said to Nines.

He told a confusing story of Gavin discovering him outside the West Detrit Android Repair Facility a week ago, and how they had brought him here in the hopes Connor would repair him.

‘It wasn’t looking good,’ Connor said, his face grim, 'but hey, I got it eventually!’

‘What was wrong? ‘ Nines couldn't tell, since his own diagnostics appeared to have abandoned him. 

Connor hesitated.

This was when Nines noticed then the red stains on his shirt, and looked down to see he himself was also covered in blood.

_Human_ blood? Where had that come from?

Connor began signing again, stopping and starting so much that Nines could hardly understand, but what he did catch made absolutely no sense.

_No way._

Nines was apparently functioning with half a human heart and several other organs embedded into his machine body.

He didn’t know what to respond.

Connor was looking at him, concerned, throwing the occasional side eye at Gavin.

_Human_.

That’s what they had done.

‘How?’ he asked, numb.

‘I don’t know, ‘ Connor signed, his expression apologetic.

_What had they done? Why? Why? Why?_

This was too much for him to comprehend.

‘I’m sorry,' Connor continued, ‘but I don’t know how. Or why. ‘

Nines nodded at him blankly. He didn’t want to talk about this anymore. He couldn't form any thoughts in his head that weren't simply horrifying. 

_Human_.

He sat up straighter and looked around for Kam- _Gavin_ , who was sitting to the right and playing with a piece of paper, looking both annoyed and curious, staring at Nines, and quickly looked away when Nines caught his eye.

Oh, it was driving him insane that he couldn’t see out of his other eye. He didn’t even know what was wrong with it- his actual error diagnostics software seemed to be broken itself, quite ironically.

He was remembering a bit more about Gavin Reed; mostly bad memories, but he was mostly amazed that he had never made a connection between him and Elijah Kamski.

Identical eyes, jawline, cheekbones, mouth. Gavin’s nose was for some eason crooked with a scar on the bridge, and he had different coloured hair, but they were almost identical.

And he couldn't quite look at him without the memory of Kamski ripping out his heart interposing itself over his brother’s face.

He had to ask. Why hadn't he known this before?

He sent a message to the sender from earlier:

_Kamski_?

He saw Connor making a harsh gesture in his peripheral vision, and the reply came almost instantly:

_it’s gavin. reed_

Okay, so definitely not Kamski. At all. But how? They had to be related, somehow.

But Gavin didn't have a brother.

He decided he would ask Connor more about this later. But for now, he felt obliged to thank the man who had apparently found him.

_Thank you._

_for what???_

(He liked the lack of capitalization. The messages looked…..funny. Good funny.) 

_I hear you found me._

_yeah. np._

Nines didn’t really know what to reply with, but he was distracted by Connor pulling something out of his arm and standing over him, obscuring Gavin from vision again.

_Why was he fighting me?_ he wondered.

The Kamski-lookalike stood up quickly and said something to Connor, then walked slightly unevenly to the door. It was apparently 4.56 am, so he don’t really know whede he could be going, but he put this thought aside, realising Connor was asking him something. 

‘Can you stand?’ he asked.

‘I’ll try,' he replied, unsure of whether he could or not.

Connor out an arm out and Nines grabbed it, finding he _could_ actually stand up, despite his legs feeling shaky and detached.

He leaned against the sofa slightly as Connor released him so he could sign again.

‘There’s a lot broken. But I think you could probably get cleaned up, if you want,’ he said, making a gesture toward Nine’s body.

Nines looked down to see an absolute state—a shirt so bloody it was almost dyed red, showing plastic underneath with deep blue gashes in it that the skin had not yet formed over.

‘ Okay,' he signed, nodding.

Connor pointed him through to the bathroom, where he staggered through a messy, dark bedroom, where he put on the light and looked in the mirror, leaning against the sink for support.

He knew that he looked bad, but this was worse than he had thought.

Half of the skin was still not reformed,, revealing gleaming crimson plastic. Deep blue scars crossed most of his torso and a multitude of cuts clotted with a mixture of red blood and thirium obscured most of the skin that _had_ reformed.

And his eyes were the worst part.

The one he knew; the one his software identified as RK900’s. And the one that was a big blank error he couldn't see from, but he could see in the mirror was clearly a bloodshot, brown human eye.

_Terrifying_.

And his LED was gone, a horrible dent where it had clearly been violently removedaa. Which made him afraid. He looked weird without it.

He remembered a time where he was called ‘Barbie’ by some of the officers at the DPD. It was hard to imagine them calling him that now.

And even clean and almost fully mobile a few minutes later, thanks to Connor’s additional adjustments, wearing a pair of way too short jeans and an unfamiliar t-shirt, Nines felt empty.

In a way the emptiness was a feeling itself; the lack of any emotion other than fear and loathing creating a tangible hole inside him.

_Defective. Creepy._

A human android? _Ridiculous_.

He closed his eyes, still dark on the left, but the technological display remaining inside his right one.

He didn’t want to look at himself anymore.

He left the bathroom, limping weirdly thanks to some random missing part in his left leg, and went through into a brightly lit kitchen.

Connor was nowhere to be found, and Nines couldn’t hear where he was, so he sat silently at the kitchen table, waiting for either him or Ka- _Gavin_ \- to return.

Staring at the ceiling, he thought of nothing.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, but he suddenly was brought back to reality by Gavin Reed stomping in and dumping a really strange assortment of food onto the kitchen table ( _peanut butter and spaghetti hoops? )_ and did a double take when he saw Nines sitting there, his mouth opened and closed in surprise.

Memories he had of Reed were chaotically overlapping with the memory of Kamski in the lab, but the link between all of them was that Gavin was not a nice person.

He bullied him in the DPD. For some reason Nines had intervened in a fight between Gavin and another officer.

And they had been working a case together. The last clear thing Nines could remember before the Repair Facility was Gavin making coffee in the precinct break room, filling a mug with a spoonful of salt. 

Presently Gavin was tapping the side of his head pointedly at Nines, unscrewing the jar of peanut butter with some difficulty at the same time. Nines watched in confusion for a minute before realising he was probably talking about Connor, the tapping on the place where Connor’s LED was.

He shrugged, and took the jar off Gavin, unscrewing it easily and handing it back lightly. 

Gavin took it, expression unreadable, then rolled his eyes and stuck a spoon into the jar. Nines felt stiff and awkward just sitting looking at him, so he stood up and leaned against the table, looking out the window at the winter rain.

_where’d tincan go_

The message flashed on his one-sided display. He turned back to see Gavin holding his phone, eating a spoonful of peanut butter with a mysteriously shaking hand.

_I don’t know_.

He sent the reply, and watched as Gavin tapped on the screen again.

_how’s it feel to not be dead?_

A joke? Or an insult? Nines knew Reed was a bully and generally a terrible person, so he wasn't really sure what to make of this.

_jk lmao_

Ah. A joke, then.

_Great. Except for all the huge fatal problems I have going on._

Gavin’s mouth briefly turned up in a smile, just as Connor re-entered the room.

He started waving his phone at Gavin, all trace of the smile leaving the other man’s face, replaced by a grim frown.

Nines wondered vaguely what they were talking about, focused on watching the Kamski look-alike reacting negatively. 

_Brothers_.

They were yelling, he was sure.

Connor came over brusquely, Nines still leaning motionless against the table.

‘I called Officer Chen. From the investigation,’ he signed, Gavin throwing a blurry middle finger at him in the background.

‘Why?’ he replied.

He didn’t really know why _she_ was a factor in this situation.

‘She’s investigating the case, so she should know we got you working.’

‘Isn’t he investigating it too?’ Nines asked, gesturing to Gavin.

Connor said something to Gavin, who made a face as though he were laughing, but with no trace of humour in his eyes. 

‘We…’ Connor paused, ‘… don’t work at the police station anymore.’

_What_? Connor must have said that wrong.

‘What do you mean?’ he signed, 

_we got fired_

Gavin sent him another message, then three in quick succession.

long story short

tincan beat me up

i got fired fpr bullying u.

_What_? Nines looked between them frantically in disbelief.. They had both been… _fired_?

Because of _him_?

He lifted his hands to reply, but couldn’t think of anything to say, and instead ran a distressed hand through his hair.

_what’s wrong?? ur not fired_

He ignored the message and walked past both Conor and Gavin, their figure blurry in his unfocused eye.

_hey??_

Ignore.

He into the room he had woken up in, kicking aside a wad of bloody paper mysteriously in his way in the ground, which he saw was actually masses of piano sheet music. 

This was just insane. Gavin wasn't _really_ a surprise, but _Connor_! And now _Chen_ was handling his case?

And he thought he was okay, now that he had escaped the lab.

He couldn't even remember how he had done that. 

Nines sat on the floor, feeling crinkly paper under him, and put his finger on the place where his LED used to be.

And suddenly-

>err///SYSTEM SHUTDOWN<

>306/<

Everything went black for a second, and Nines was suddenly lying on his side on the floor, staring, unable to move, at a crumpled copy of _Debussy's Arabesque No. 1._

>REBOOTING//67%/<

He wondered if he should somehow summon Connor, but he decided not to bother, sitting up slowly, now at 89% capacity. 

He was fine. That was just a temporary glitch, to be expected from his Frankenstin’s monster of a system.

_hey dipshit u ok?_

_No_ , he thought. _There's a human fucking heart inside me, and I don't know how to get it out._

_Yes_ , he replied. 

He stayed sitting on the floor, aware he was shaking, though fully rebooted. He didn't really trust his system anymore, though- not when he was full of human bits and pieces. 

He saw Gavin was typing something, and went on typing for a minute or two, before the speech bubble vanished and his inbox remained empty.

_Huh_.

He pulled at the edge the shirt he was wearing, hands shaking slightly—Gavin’s shirt.

How had he ended up here? Who had done this?

And how was he going to fix himself?

No one came into the room and he sat there, wondering if the person who had done this to him was the only person who could undo it.

Gavin’s brother, apparently.

Rain lashed down on the windows, but Nines sat, unhearing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew. what a day for poor Nines.
> 
> (Also, is the way I'm writing the sign language as normal speech working? Let me know if there's a better way to do it or if it's confusing <3)


	21. You and I Are Not So Different, After All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines breaks the truth out of Gavin, eventually--the truth about who he really is, and the truth about Elijah Kamski.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why does Gavin hate androids so much? It goes deep--deeper than Nines ever expected.

‘Hey, maybe _you_ should shut up for one _fucking_ second!’

Gavin glared at Connor and kicked at one of the chairs in the kitchen.

They’d been having another argument for almost an hour now, going round in circles, and to be honest, Gavin had pretty much forgotten what his original point even was.

‘ _I_ didn’t upset him, he’s _already_ upset, Reed! Connor leaned his head against the wall in an obvious gesture of annoyance. 'What, you _weren’t_ going to tell him? ‘

‘Maybe you don’t understand _emotion_ very well, plastic, because finding out that much shit in one day is a _little bit traumatising_!’ Gavin snapped.

He had had enough of Connor and his stupid superior attitude. Gavin was no therapist, but finding out you had been experimented on by some freak scientists and filled with random human organs was pretty bad on its own. _Then_ finding out your friend had been fired because he beat up another… guy at work, because of you? 

Yikes.

And now Connor was all like ‘ _sooner rather than later?’_

Damn, he _was_ cold.

‘You know what, Connor? _Fuck_ _you_ ,’ he said emphatically, and walked pointedly away, leaving the android standing angrily in the kitchen. 

Gavin rarely finished arguments; it was easier to win if you just abandoned them.

Standing and seething, in the hall, he had two choices—go back to bed, or talk to Nines.

The android had been completely silent for the last hour in the living room, oblivious to him and Connor having a shouting match.

Gavin didn’t feel comfortable talking to Nines alone. He never had and probably never would.

So he decided to leave that to Connor, and continued to his bedroom, where he stood looking out the window at the grey winter sky that was growing lighter as it approached morning.

Damn. This was a whole mess. 

He was thinking about how fucking messed up you would have to be to do that to an android. What was the _reason_? 

‘ _You can always go further.'_

He shivered. Words yelled at him in a high school science lab, his hands thin and cold, a torn music book on the floor. 

_Further into insanity_ , had been his reply. 

He watched the rain pouring onto the empty street, bending the skeletal branches of the trees, wishing he had something to drink, when suddenly his phone vibrated in his pocket. 

A message. From Nines. 

_What was the fight about?_

What? What fight?

_???,_ he replied. 

He had no idea what the android was talking about.

_You were fighting somebody. And I stopped you?_

Ohhh. Nines was talking about that long-ago day where Gavin had accidentally smashed his nose in that fight with Creed.

_idk why u stopped me_

_Creed?_

_Yeah_

_What happened to him?_

_Idk. suspension I think_

_Right._

Geez. He knew Nines was probably not doing great, sitting in the dark alone, but he was _such_ a dry texter.

_Ur such a formal texter_

_What?_

_U use,,,,, real grammar_

_Is that incorrect?_

_no its just funny_

_……….._

Gavin laughed slightly at the palpable anxiety in Nine’s messages. He had never really spoken with the android before, normally, and he was hilarious, albeit in an unconscious way. Until his next text:

  
_I have to ask you something_. 

  
Aaah.   
The kind of sentence that sent Gavin speedrunning through the 5 stages of grief.

_?_

He waited anxiously while the speech bubble floated on his screen, his heart beating very fast.   
He knew what this had to be about. 

_You look like Kamski._

‘Fuck,’ he whispered. 

It was all coming undone, thanks to this stupid, stupid robot.   
His whole life was hanging on a thread, held by Connor and now Nines. 

He had never imagined things would come crashing down so spectacularly. 

‘Fuck,’ he said again, louder this time, inexplicably feeling as though he were going to cry, panic filling his brain. 

And then the door opened slightly behind him, and the reflection in the window showed light from the hall glinting off a plastic hand that was waving slightly in the gap. 

‘Fuck off,’ Gavin said viciously, momentarily forgetting the android couldn’t hear anything. 

The door opened more and the tall, unbalanced figure of Nines was leaning in it, the brown eye peering around, the eye that somehow made him look less like Connor.

_Fuck off,_ he typed. 

Gavin angrily waved his phone at the android, who abruptly withdrew his head form the door.

_I’m sorry._

Nines was still standing outside. Waiting. 

  
_He was there. In the lab. He did this._

Gavin’s phone shook in his hand, and he gripped it tighter. 

He had done this. Gavin had known, from the second Nines had spelled his name out to Connor. 

Gavin felt something in his head break slightly. 

_He_ had done this to Nines and he would do it again like he had done it before and Gavin’s thoughts were coming too quickly and he felt his throat constricting and all of a sudden Nines was standing beside him and he was sitting on the floor and he couldn’t stop thinking about _his fucking face_ and-

He tried to breathe. 

He was dimly aware of his phone vibrating, ont he floor with a new crack snaking across it, and Nines ruined face was in front of his, the mismatched eyes staring anxiously into his. 

‘Sorry,’ he gasped, trying to pull himself together against the waves of horror that were smashing him to pieces, drowning him. 

The android waved his hands helplessly, clearly unsure of what to do. He looked toward the door, to where Connor was still in the kitchen, but Gavin grabbed his wrist, desperately not wanting Connor to come. 

Gavin felt like he was losing his mind again, the mind he had barely managed to rebuild. 

He looked up at Nines, at the place his LED used to be, where it would spin yellow every time Gavin had jeered at him in the DPD, how satisfying it had been to him to get a response from the android, that he hated just because of what he was. 

Noticing Gavin staring, Nines touched a self-concious hand to the absent LED, to the scar that was there instead, and for some reason that calmed Gavin down slightly, to see that Nines was still an android, still the same piece of plastic, just broken up. 

He drew in a deep breath and leaned back against the windowsill, becoming more aware that he was sitting really, _really_ close to Nines, and the skirting board was digging uncomfortably into his back. 

The android was still looking at him, and Gavin fumbled around on the floor for his phone, sending him a message with half- numb fingers. 

_Sstrry_

Fuck. He tried again:

_sorry*_

Nines held up a hand in an indecipherable gesture. 

_Are you okay?_

Gavin read the massage, staring blankly at it. 

He was not, not at all, and he didn’t even know Nines, and he didn’t want to tell him anything; anything at all. 

But he saw the still red, bloody scrapes on the android’s face, the places where he was not quite a machine, the scars around his real and unreal eyes, and knew that, bizarrely, if there was anyone who needed to know this- it was Nines. 

_it’s comlicatdd_

He couldn’t type properly with his uncooperative fingers, but the android seemed to get it. 

_You don’t have to tell me._

_i don’t want to bbut I think u szhouk know_. 

Nines pulled at a strand of his own hair. Gavin leaned away from him slightly, focusing as hard as he could on his phone. 

Now or never, dipshit.

_My real name is Alexander Kamski._

Nines went still, his face frozen with wide eyes as he read the message in his head. 

Gavin felt himself shaking again, but went on anyway. 

_Elijah Kamski is my twin brother._

Nines touched his hand to his LED scar again, unfocused, before looking at Gavin again. 

_Cyberlife Kamski?_

Gavin nodded. 

_You don’t like him._

‘No,’ Gavin said, staring straight ahead at the wall as he typed:

_i hate him._

_Why?_

Gavin looked at the android, feeling sick.

He hadn’t told anyone this, ever. And was never planning on doing it.

He could hear the faint heartbeat inside Nines and felt sicker but he put his phone in the ground and glared fiercely at Nines, who looked at him curiously, also shaking slightly. 

Gavin pulled up his shirt slowly, and he saw Nines mouth drop open in pure shock when he saw what Gavin had not showed a single person in his entire life. 

The faint blue scar, that ran along his body from his lower chest to the centre of his back, and the slight but unmistakable glow of white plastic under his skin. 

‘See why I hate him?’ he choked out, feeling tears in the corners of his eyes. ‘He needed experiments, the poor fucking genius!’ 

Nines reached out, his mouth still open, the skin on his hand retracting. His cold fingers ran over the scar, and Gavin saw his horrified face swimming in front of him, and sank onto the floor, inexplicably laughing, laughing until he was crying. 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well. That was unexpected.


	22. The Memories Of Alexander Kamski

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin Reed- formerly Alexander Kamski- had a troubled past. But what led his brother to turn him into a cyborg?
> 
> Alexander doesn't know.

'Hey, Alex, guess what?!'

Elijah burst into the kitchen where Alexander was poring over his music assignment at the table.

Alex looked up, annoyed, to see his brother waving a sheaf of papers triumphantly.

'What now?' he groaned.

'Acceptance letter for you, and one for me!' his brother exclaimed gleefully, slapping one of the papers down in front of Alex.

'From where?' he said, reading the first few upside down letters; _We are delighted to offer you a place at-_

'Colebridge?' he said, curiously. 'When did we apply there?'

'I applied for you,' Elijah said, somewhat sheepishly. 'I knew you weren't going to, but it was pretty easy. He laughed at Alex's raised eyebrows.

'I already told you I wanted to go to Harvard.' 

'Yeah, and I want to go to Colebridge.They have a _really_ good Comp Sci programme. _Amanda Stern,'_ he said with some significance.

Alex ignored this. 

'What about the music programme?' 

'It's not bad. You'll do amazing.' 

Alexander looked at his brother's face, almost exactly identical to his own, except missing the scar he had gotten from a smashed bottle at the age of five.

It had eternally annoyed him that _he_ was the one with the scar.

'We could go to, you know, different places,' he said, tentatively. 

'Hah,' his brother laughed, scathingly, 'they're not splitting up the Kamski brothers!' 

And so Alexander found himself getting off the bus with his brother in the torrential rain, outside Colebridge University, a million miles from where he wanted to be, but at least he was with his brother. 

**_************************_ **

'Fuck _off_ , El. '

'Alex, this is important, okay? I'm about to make a breakthrough, this one's really working, and I need help.' 

Alexander banged his forehead on the piano. He had a exam in two days, and he wasn't even finished the piece yet. 

'I'm pretty busy right now, El, if you can't see that, and I don't have time for your crackhead computer stuff.'

Elijah strode over to him and violently slapped a piece of paper onto the top of the piano. 

'Woah, _hey_!' Alex exclaimed, but Elijah cut in over him. 

'I need people for this trial, Alex!' he said, his face shadowy in a way Alexander didn't like. 'I modeled the whole thing on myself, and obviously that makes _you_ the ideal candidate!' 

'Look, Elijah, I've helped you a bunch, but I'm busy with my own shit, and I'm not letting you attach me to a computer or whatever you're doing down there,' Alex sighed, exasperated. 

They'd been having this fight for weeks now. Elijah needed Alex to work on his newest 'project,' which was apparently ' _groundbreaking'_ and all that, and it was' _imperative'_ that Alex specifically was involved. 

Also, he couldn't get anyone else to participate. 

Alex suspected it was because his brother had a reputation for being kind of a sociopath when it came to 'taking science further,' as had become his catchphrase. 

'You'll do it, Alexander, because I need this,' he said, his voice cold. 

'No.' 

Elijah narrowed his eyes. Sunken slightly in pale cheeks. He had become almost unrecognisable in both appearance and demeanour in the last months.

'Some brother you are,' he spat; steely, frighteningly, leaving Alex sitting with his head in his hands at the piano, feeling as though something very bad was going to happen to Elijah. 

**_*********************_ **

'Hey, El, what the fuck is in this?' Alexander slurred, sloppily waving his glass at Elijah.

He had been surprised earlier by his somewhat contrite twin showing up in his room, apologising for being so pushy for the last few weeks about partaking in his 'experiments.'

'I only wanted you to help,' he had said apologetically, standing in the doorway and holding up a bottle of cheap vodka. 'But sorry, for annoying you.'

'It's okay,' Alex had said, taking the bottle off him and waving him inside. 'I was just busy, is all.'

Elijah mixed the drinks and they had sat on the floor, talking and messing around like when they were fifteen and they had nothing to worry about except each other.

Alex had felt himself getting drunk oddly quickly compared to normal - he had a pretty high alcohol tolerance, probably inherited from their mother.

Maybe it was the strength of the alcohol, or stress, or something. 

He didn't notice that Elijah didn't answer his question, when he asked him what was in the drink.

'Is it like... I can't rememeber?' he asked, laughing incoherently. 'Maybe.. mother's?' 

Elijah had gone strangely quiet, while Alex sat giggling drunkenly, leaning against the bottom of the piano. 

Mother. Damn. It had been a while. 

'Do you.. do you.. fuck.. can you.. remember?' he asked his twin, for some reason his grip on speech abandoning him. 

'I remember her,' Elijah replied, looking at the floor. 

Alex looked at him, the deep shadows under his eyes, concern breaking through the strange swimming sensation in his head.

'Is everything o-okay?'

Elijah stood up.

Alex noticed _he_ wasn't drunk at all. And then he starts talking, in a strange, formal way that Alex didn't recognise. 

'I'm sorry, about this, Alex, but you're the only person that this will work with. I told you it was important.'

'What?' Alex said, but his mouth wasn't working properly, and then he was on his side, on the floor, with his brother standing over him, looking down, saying something in Polish that he didn't understand. 

Alex couldn't read his face, the edges of his vision turning black.

'Przepraszam, bracie.'

_I'm sorry, brother._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short one-getting my ass kicked at school lmao.  
> Anyways, we get a bit of romance next chapter!!! a break from all the pain!!!!!


	23. Coffee And Text Messages, Part 2, But With More Depression

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little break from the drama.  
> Nines doesn't know how to help Gavin, but he wants to try.  
> Even if that means poisoning him with espresso.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was not in the mood to torture everyone today, so a bit of an interruption to regular scheduling with two Dumbasses :)

_Tap._

_Tap._

_Tap._

Nothing. 

Nines was still sitting on the floor of Gavin’s bedroom, the other man curled with his head on his knees, glassy-eyed. He didn’t respond to Nines tapping on his shoulder. 

Nines couldn’t say anything. 

And even if he could speak-what would he say, to Alexander Kamski? 

Many unexpected things had happened to Nines. But he had never expected to find out something like _this_ , about his long-time tormentor Gavin Reed. 

The sun had unexpectedly broken out, slants of icy winter light shining across the scratched up wooden floor, cutting a sharp shadow between the two of them. 

_Experiment_. 

Gavin, like Nines, was an experiment. 

Nines could not identify what parts were inside Gavin, since they did not appear as registered parts in his system, but he was able to tell he had thirium in him. It was different to the type inside androids nowadays, a different formula- hence why he had never scanned it inside Gavin before. 

Android blood ran in his veins, how human blood ran in his. 

Nines was desperate for more information. Was this why Gavin hated androids so much? Had this been voluntary or forced? What had happened between him and his brother?  
Why had he crafted the new identity?

And what exactly had he done to him? 

He didn't ask any of this. They sat in utter silence.

Nines had always been quiet. But now, he was desperately wishing he could speak, and say something, anything. 

Instead he just sat, uncomfortably close to Gavin, watching the shadows shifting on the floor. 

It got darker. 

He closed his eyes. 

Connor did not reappear.

The sun disappeared, and it was night time again. 

Nines kept his eyes closed, finding out anything he could about Alexander Kamski. 

Sure enough, he existed.

A gifted musician in high school, listed as a performer in the Detroit Junior Concert Hall. 

A picture of him, grinning in a way he had never seen Gavin smile, with shorter hair, with his arm thrown around an identical boy.

A boy who would grow into both a genius and a psychopath. 

And then absolutely nothing else. 

After 2020 Alexander did not exist; completely replaced by Elijah. Elijah who was graduating with top honours and getting accepted into prestigious internships.

Elijah- who was creating artificial life. 

Alexander Kamski became nothing. Wiped away. 

But still here. 

_u alive dipshit?_

Nines opened his eyes abruptly, noticing it was now 4.43 am. 

Gavin was kneeling in front of him, waving a hand in front of his face, still slightly blank in the eyes, but moving. He was holding his phone in his other hand and Nines could see the speech bubble where from where he was still looking at the message. 

_Yes. Alive. Technically._

Gavin didn’t smile. He dragged his hand down his face, as if trying to pull it off, and sat back on the floor, looking up at the ceiling. 

_Gavin_? 

Nines couldn’t make Gavin look at the message. The man sat still, holding his open phone, Nines staring at him, willing him to say something. 

Eventually after four more minutes, he read the message. 

_can I ask u something_

Nines felt scared. What kind of insane thing was he about to tell him now?

He had an urge to get up and walk away, away from this insanity, and this messed up human. 

He nodded instead. 

can u get me a coffee???? 

Gavin looked hopefully at Nines, who felt as though he were going to burst out laughing, such a rare feeling it surprised him. 

Amazing. Nines had been worrying he was going to _kill himself_ or something, and now he wanted coffee, of all things. 

Nines shook his head in amusement.   
What a weird guy. 

_pleaseee?_

He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to. But…. 

_Okay_. 

Gavin made a mini fist of triumph and stretched his legs out on the ground, finally uncurling from the hunched-over ball and sitting still again, but more relaxed, calmer. 

Nines wasn’t sure what had calmed him down, but he hoped he would stay that way, and not do anything dangerous. 

He went out to the kitchen. Connor really wasn’t there—he must have gone home, or something. Nines was annoyed that he had left him like that, alone with Gavin Reed. 

Right. Coffee. 

Nines did not drink coffee. Or anything, for that matter.

But he knew how it was made, and still remembered the way Gavin had made his that day in the precinct. 

Kind of. It was a _bit_ blurry.

He opened the cupboards to discover Gavin literally had no food in any of the cupboards, (what does he eat?), but one thing he _did_ have a _lot_ of a lot of was instant coffee.Three separate, but all half way finished jars. 

They had different labels, but he couldn't read then properly with only one eye, so he hoped that wasn't anything important. 

Technology was really annoying. He couldn't seem to balance his working eye out properly to compensate for the other one, so that was that, really.

He'd have to look into getting that fixed somehow. 

Nines hesitated, before heaping 4 spoons of coffee out of one jar into a cup.

That seemed like a lot. He looked it up- yes, it was supposed to be two to four spoons. 

He didn’t have any sugar, but he highly doubted Gavin would notice that, and carried the cup carefully back to Gavin’s bedroom, trying not to spill any of it in his shaky hands.

He pushed open the door and saw Gavin was still sitting on the floor, staring into space, the light giving him a ghostly pallor and highlighting the shadows in his cheeks. 

He looked up at Nines and nodded in a gesture of thanks. 

Nines put the cup down in front of him and stood dithering, unsure of whether to stay or go.

Nines did _not_ like Gavin. He was a bad person. But he didn’t want to leave him alone, either.

Really the best thing to do was get Connor. At least he could actually help the man. Talk to him, and find out more. 

However- Nines _knew_ Connor. 

Connor was an android. And androids are quite predictable, even the deviants. Having a head full of psychology text books meant you were quite likely to start pulling your reactions and advice from other people. 

Other situations, from somewhere in a book or on a website. 

And this was not really the kind of situation where that was going to work. He highly doubted there was advice on the Internet for what to say to your arch-nemesis who had been turned into a freak cyborg by his estranged twin. 

Nines stood on the verge of the doorway, lost in his head, busy preconstructing scenarios, imagining what would happen if he told Connor, or left Gavin, and thinking about how insane it was that any of this was even happening.

Gavin Reed. Elijah Kamski. Alexander Kamski.

what the fuck is in this coffee???? 

Nines blinked. The message came from nowhere, startling him. He looked down to see Gavin, sitting up straighter, holding the cup of coffee with a grimace.

He looked more focused. Less distressed.

Good. 

_But what was wrong with the coffee_ , he wondered?  
(He knew it was it was stupid to feel kind of offended at the face Gavin was making.) 

_What’s wrong with it?_

_How much did u put in????_

_4 tablespoons?_

_TEASPOONS DIPSHIT SKSJSKSJSK_

_OF THE ESPRESSO ONE!?!??_

_HUMANS CAN’T DRINK THAT MUCH KSJSK_

Oh. Oops. _That_ was why it had looked like so much. 

_Sorry_. 

_dw ill still drink it_

Gavin laughed, silent to Nines, his eyes lightening slightly as he took a bitter swig of the drink. He taped out another text one-handed:

_sorry as well_

Nines was confused.

_For what?_

Gavin shrugged, looking embarrassed.

_i shouldn’t have told u all that._

_It’s okay. I’m glad you did_.

They looked at each other awkwardly, then looked away, neither really sure how to continue, with Nines knowing what he knew about Gavin.

It's strange, he thought, to hold someone else's deepest secrets in your hand, and not even really be friends. 

He held his burning questions to himself as best as he could, while Gavin folded his arms and leaned back against the window.

Nines decided to leave, seeing Gavin didn’t seem as volatile anymore, needing to get out and think about this himself. He turned to leave again. 

_wait_

He turned back around. Gavin was standing, looking unsure of himself as he typed on his phone, deliberately not looking at Nines. 

_…._

_…._

_...._

Ellipses. 

Nines stood with his hands in his pockets as Gavin typed. 

Then he stopped. And there was no message. 

_What_? Nines asked. He had been typing for ages, and sent nothing. 

_nvm_

Gavin shoved his phone away and took another gulp of the ‘undrinkable’ coffee. 

He shrugged again at Nines, who was standing in confusion, still reading the message display in his one working eye, where the speech bubble had disappeared. 

He left anyway, still half-expecting a message, despite nothing appearing. 

_That was definitely something_ , he thought, leaning on the outside of Gavin’s door. 

The only thing he could think about was the fact that Gavin Reed was not who he was. 

And Nines wanted to know the truth. 

_What happened to him?_

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you say 'I want romance!' I say 'this is it!! Nines makes him coffee!! what more do u want!!'  
> jokes aside, I'm hoping this is a lil' development, and a break from our regularly scheduled pain and angst.


	24. The Investigation Begins- And Ends, Because These People are Stupid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The whole gang finally gets together as Tina begins the investigation. But things quickly dissolve into chaos--as expected, especially when she sees what happened to Nines.  
> To be fair, she couldnt possibly know what was really going on......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back to our customary chaos! Tina takes a leap of faith to the distress of everyone else... yikes, maybe she's not the best cop after all.....

‘He’s working! ‘

Tina stared at the phone. She had not been expecting a call from Connor, but it was a relief to be interrupted from tying her head in knots over this case.

She had been working as hard as she could, but it was seeming impossible to get leads on anything.

Especially without Nines himself. And she hated to admit it- Gavin, who was actually a pretty good detective. 

She had gone back to Connor’s house the next day, to find that he was not there. No note, no text, nothing. The lights were still on, but no one was home; a bad sign in her opinion.

He also had her laptop, which she really needed back.

He hadn’t answered her calls.  
She had tried Gavin, as well, in case he knew something, but obviously _he_ had not replied.

Spending the whole week in a very subdued precinct had not done her nerves any good- sitting and looking at all the empty desks, and the other officers still whispering and laughing about her disgraced colleagues, as well as rumours about the return of Jonathan Creed. 

So a call from Connor had been a massive relief. 

‘What’s working?’ she asked, confused by his excited tone of voice, compared to the quiet, beaten one she had last spoken to.

‘Nines!’ 

‘What?’ she said loudly, drawing glances from some passing officers. 

_Nines? What the hell? Connor had found him?_

‘Long story,’ Connor continued, ‘but yeah, we found him, and I got him reactivated-‘ 

‘Who’s _we_?’ Tina interjected, though she had a feeling she already knew the answer. 

‘Uh-‘ Connor hesitated slightly ‘-Gavin. Reed.’ 

Tina didn’t swear very much, but she allowed herself a ‘what the fuck’ in her own internal monologue.

Last time she had seen Gavin he was having some kind of mental episode, and to her knowledge, the last time he and Connor had been together the android had knocked his lights out. 

And they were… working _together_? 

‘Okay, first of all--Reed? And second of all—how the hell did you get Nines!?’

‘Reed found him. A series of coincidences, if you will-‘ 

‘Okay!’ she cut in again. ‘I want to see.’

Connor laughed slightly, Tina finding his good mood very strange. 

‘I had a feeling you would. If you come by Gavin’s, he’s here.’ 

Tina did not want to ‘ _come by Gavin’s.’_   
She did not really want to talk to Gavin ever again, if she was honest. 

But Nines was back? This was insane.

She had been convinced that they would have to launch some kind of SWAT mission to get him out of the creepy repair facility, but it appeared that he had just… walked out of it. 

‘Right,’ she said to Connor, somewhat reluctantly, ‘I’ll be there.’ 

‘Great,’ Connor said enthusiastically and hung up, before she could say a thing further. 

She had always thought Nines the weirder of the two android’s, but she was beginning to think Connor was a bit strange as well. 

Cute, but definitely strange. 

*************************

‘Why does he live so far _away_?’ she muttered, finally turning onto the street where Gavin lived. Walking across the whole town had been a massive pain and now her feet hurt- she _really_ needed a car. 

She rang the bell outside Gavin's apartment, feeling apprehensive, but before anybody answered she heard someone calling her from behind. 

‘Officer!’ 

Connor was holding a carrier bag and climbing the front steps, looking pleased to see her, which was surprising. 

Tina immediately felt awkward—the last time she had seen him she had literally called him a slur.

He didn’t seem to be holding that again her today, though. 

‘You got here quick,’ he said, pulling a key out of his pocket and opening the door. She was relieved she wouldn't have to trespass, this time. 

‘Um, yeah, well….I was- is Nines here?’ she said, cutting over her own sentence. 

Connor paused in opening the door. He looked at her, almost sadly. 

‘Yeah. But he’s not good,’ he said, more quietly, the good humour fading from his eyes. ‘Don’t mention it to him, you know, straight away.’ 

‘Mention what?’ she said, following him in the door. ‘What?’ 

‘He’s… messed up,' he replied shortly. 

‘Why so cryptic?’ Tina muttered under her breath, following him into the apartment. 

She was greeted with what looked like a bomb site. The neat stacks of sheet music from her last visit were strewn all over the place, and for some unknown reason half of it was covered in blood. 

‘Um?’ she exclaimed questioningly, as Connor put on the light and looked around, seeming worried. 

‘I shouldn’t have left them,' he muttered worriedly.' Hang on.'

He was implying she should wait there, but she followed curiously to the kitchen anyway. 

And sure enough, standing there, was Nines. 

Dressed in a much too short pair of jeans and listing slightly to the right, but alive. There. 

He didn’t turn around, staring straight ahead out the window. 

‘Oh my God!’ Tina exclaimed. ‘You _were_ telling the truth!’ 

Connor looked at her.  
‘Why would I lie?’ he asked, some of the hard edge returning to his voice.

Tina didn’t know what to say to that, but she was mostly just happy to see Nines. 

Connor went over to him and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned, startled, and then Tina felt her mouth drop open slightly. 

His face.

_Jesus Christ._

Nines had been handsome. Perfect, slightly inhuman features.

Then he had been scarred, slightly marred by thin blue scars that had run in criss crosses across his face. 

But now-

‘Whats wrong with his eyes!’ she burst, Connor looking at her pointedly. Nines also looked at her then, surprised. 

Connor frowned, and said something in ASL to the other android, hands moving too quickly for Tina to follow with her one semester of Sign Language that she was beginning to realise was practically useless. 

Nines replied, seeming janky and stiff, compared to the normal elegance with which androids moved. She remembered how bad he had looked in the facility, but now with his skin activated he somehow looked worse, parts of it missing, a patchwork of pale skin and white plastic, for some reason with red and clue streaks across his neck. 

He looked right at her with these freaky, mismatched eyes, nor knowing which eye to look at.

One of them looked so real. Like… way realer than the eyes android's normally had, which always cam with a certain degree of artifice. 

‘He wants to know why you’re here,’ Connor translated. 

‘Um, because of the investigation?’ she replied, speaking to Connor. 

He told Nines what she said, and the android nodded at her- she hoped in a friendly way. 

‘Is Gavin here?’ she asked, addressing the elephant in the room, and Connor looked expectantly at Nines. 

He didn’t sign, but gestured to the door hall behind him.

Tina was still in shock. She had been expecting Nines not to be, you know, _great_ , but the blank look in his awful eyes was terrifying, along with the scarecrow hair and long scars down his arms. 

‘Hey,’ Connor said, drawing her gaze away, ‘why don’t you sit down, I’ll get Gavin and we can start.’

She nodded absently at him as he left, still looking at Nines, who was looking out the window again, his hand at the side of his head. 

‘ _Fuck off!’_ came a sudden muffled shout from the hall, where Connor had disappeared to. 

Gavin. Obviously. 

_‘I told you-‘_

_‘You had no right-‘_

_‘It’s because-_

_'I don’t give a shit!_ ‘ 

There came the sound of smashing ceramic. 

Connor came back out into the kitchen, wiping what looked like cold coffee off his cheek, a tiny blue cut freshly formed on his skin.

‘ He’ll be out in a minute, ’ he said drily. ‘Also, he might kill you. ‘

'Right, ‘Tina said, doubtful Gavin was going to show at all. 'Do you have my laptop?’

Connor nodded, watching Nines, who suddenly limped past them out into the hallway. 

‘Damn,' Tina said aloud after he left.

Connor looked at her coldly. 

‘Yeah, not so pretty anymore, is he? ‘

Tina felt the temperature drop. So he _was_ still mad. 

‘That’s not what I meant!’ she said desperately. ‘Look, I’m sorry for what I said, but I’m still right-‘ 

‘I have been working myself to the _bone_ to get him activated, Chen, so shut up,’ Connor said in a fierce whisper. ‘I’ve done my part.’ 

She was about to ask if beating up another officer had been his ‘part,’ when they were interrupted by the arrival of said other officer. 

Gavin stormed in, looking worse than ever, his shirt hanging off him and deep shadows under his eyes, skull-like.

He glared at Tina. 

‘Nice to see you here, uninvited, _again_ ,’ he snapped. 

‘Shut up, Reed,’ Connor said. 

‘ _You_ shut up,’ Gavin replied. ‘Also, can people just.. stop showing up at my house like this?’ He looked around. ‘Where’s Tin Can 2. 0?’

‘I thought he went to get you?’ Connor said. 

Tina stood watching them as they started bickering. 

_Men_ , she thought scathingly. 

‘You left him with me!’ 

‘Wow, almost like you’re an adult man!’ 

‘At least I’m a real-‘ 

‘ _Oh my God_ , shut up, both of you!’ Tina exclaimed, the two men turning to look at her. They glared at each other, then at her. 

‘I’m here for Nines, not to get in the middle of a _divorce_!’ she continued. 

Gavin rolled his eyes at her, but took a sidestep away from Connor; right into Nines, who had just silently re-entered on the left to the already crowded kitchen. 

‘Shit!’ he yelped, rubbing his elbow. ‘What are y’all made of? Concrete?’ 

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he opened it to read the text, laughing a little and crossing his arms. 

‘I am not,’ he said offendedly to Nines, who held up his hands and shrugged, his scarred mouth turning up at the corner. 

Tina and Connor stared at each other. 

_What the fuck_? 

Gavin had done literally nothing except torture the android, and now they were practically best friends? Telling jokes?? 

What the hell? 

Connor appeared to be having similar thoughts, but he seemed able to speak, more than Tina could say for herself. 

‘Okay, can we actually get started?’ he asked.

Gavin blinked and sat down at the table. 

‘Fine,’ he said. ‘What exactly are we doing?’ 

Tina had recovered enough to answer him.

‘I have to find out about what happened to Nines, this time, because that will probably solve his original attack.’ 

Connor was translating this to Nines, who nodded and sat down as well. 

_Okay, good start. At least Nines is cooperating._

‘Connor? My laptop?’ she asked, and he reached over to pull it out of the bag he had been holding earlier. 

‘Here.’ 

She turned it on and opened the files, noticing behind the screen that Gavin was still texting someone, and Nines was still slightly smiling. 

Absolutely, completely _mad_. 

And _very_ suspicious. She decided to ignore this for the moment. 

‘So, Nines, I’ve gotta ask you a couple of questions.’ 

Nines nodded again, looking at Connor for translation. 

‘What happened to you at West Detroit Android Repair Facility?’ 

She watched carefully as Nines looked down at the floor. Gavin was looking up at him, very strangely. 

‘I don’t know if he really knows,’ Connor said behind her. ‘Maybe-‘ 

‘Sorry, Connor,’ Tina interrupted, ‘but I have to ask.’ 

Nines looked at her, and then said something to Connor. 

‘I don’t think so,’ Connor replied aloud, shaking his head. 

Gavin narrowed his eyes. ‘What’s he saying?’ he asked Connor. 

‘He said he could.. show you,’ Connor said slowly, staring at Nines. ‘But I don’t think-‘ 

‘If he wants to he can,’ Tina said. ‘That would help a lot, actually.’ 

Connor shook his head again in despair. ‘Look, you don’t want to see-'

Nines interrupted him then, suddenly standing up. He shot a brief glance at Gavin for some reason, before pulling his shirt off in a quick but awkward movement. 

Tina let out an audible gasp of horror, as did Gavin, who almost fell out of his seat. 

‘ Oh no, _no_.’ 

She felt how she had when she was nine, and had walked in on her parents watching a horror movie—horrified, but unable to look away. 

Behind the plastic panel on Nines’ chest, behind a cracked thirium regulator, was a human heart. 

A real one. 

_Real_. 

She was going to be sick. 

Plastic tubes meant to be full of thirium, plastic ones, with real human blood inside them, running underneath, disappearing into the android’s body. 

She couldn’t look at his face. 

She remembered his memories, on file on the computer in front of her; the blood spattered wall and dripping scalpel in the woman’s hand. 

Connor was tapping her on the shoulder, but she was stuck, frozen, looking at Nines, who slid shut the panel and pulled the jumper back down over his scarred body. 

He sat down again and looked fiercely at Gavin, who was looking away, pale, his hands clutching his own hair. 

Tina didn’t know what emotion was showing the androids eyes -the mismatched, real and unreal ones- but he looked angry. 

‘Hey, hey, you guys!’ Connor was saying angrily, sounding very far away. ‘If you can’t handle yourselves, then leave!’ 

‘Fuck,’ Gavin muttered, oblivious to Nines’ glare. 

Tina knew she had to pull herself together, and compartmentalised the image into a box, pushing it out of her head as best as she could.   
She turned back to Connor with an effort. 

‘Okay, next question.’ Her voice was weird and strangled. 

Connor nodded at her. She was shivering slightly, feeling definitely that she was going to get sick, but she tried her best to progress. 

‘Who was there?’ 

Nines replied to Connor, slowly, the anger gone from his eyes; blank again. Tina found it hard to look at him. 

‘He doesn't know for sure, but he saw Elijah Kamski.’

Gavin reacted to this, sitting up straighter. 

‘That wasn’t in the files you showed me, Connor.’ Tina said, annoyed. 

Connor shrugged, taking a seat at the table.

‘I said it wasn’t completely accurate. But I can get his memory again, if you want.’ 

‘That would be great. For proof and stuff.’ 

Connor asked a question to Nines, gesturing at the laptop. 

Unexpectedly, Nines shook his head, shooting another glance at Gavin.

‘He says no,’ Connor said, confused. 

'Why?' 

Tina was looking between Gavin and Nines, who were for some unfathomable reason giving each other shifty side- glances. 

Then it hit her. A jump to a conclusion, but there was no other logical explanation. 

‘Oh my god, you- _no way_!’ she gasped, drawing a frantic line in the air between the two. ‘I _don’t believe it_!’

‘What?’ Connor and Gavin said at the same time, Nines looking utterly lost. 

‘Why do you think he won’t give you his memory? And they keep… _looking at each other,’_ she said emphatically to Connor, who widened his eyes, his LED spinning rapidly.

_Oh my god, oh my god. The look. The inside jokes. It fits._

Gavin stood up abruptly. ‘What the _fuck_ are you talking about?’ he demanded. 

‘You are _absolutely disgusting!_ ’ Tina said scathingly to him, Connor still looking as though he had been hit on the head. 

‘I don’t get it?’

‘You..did you two _….no way!’_

‘What do you mea- _shit_.’

Gavin suddenly gaped in realization at what she was implying. 

' _What the fuck_?’ he exclaimed angrily. ‘What kind of actual _shit show_ investigation are you running, Chen?’ 

Tina couldn’t think of anything to say, but immediately turned on the defensive, standing up as well, distracted from thinking of Nines gory insides with this new idea. 

‘It’s not my fault that _he_ won’t tell me anything and _you’re_ completely useless! And if you’re _taking advantage_ -‘ 

‘ _I’m not the fucking police officer_!' Gavin said, pulling on his hair again, 'and you just accused me of _sleeping_ with the fucking _plastic_!’ 

‘ _Enough_!’ 

Connor suddenly slammed his hand on the table drawing the attention even of Nines, who had had been flicking his head between Gavin and Tina, as though watching a riveting but nonsensical tennis match. 

‘This is ridiculous! Officer, you need to conduct the investigation properly!’ 

Connor was trying to sound official, but he was still looking at Gavin, scandalised. 

‘Will you _stop_ looking at me like that!’ Gavin shouted at him. 

All three of them were incoherently yelling at each other, an accusatory Mexican stand off, when Nines suddenly threw back his chair with a clatter and walked away, out into the hall, making a lot more noise than his customary silent limp. 

Tina heard a door slam down the hallway- the living room door – and then silence. 

Nobody said anything. 

Connor sat down heavily, his head in his hands, and Gavin folded his arms over his chest tightly, breathing heavily. 

Tina closed over her laptop gently. 

_What an absolute disaster_. _And I still feel sick._

 _I really am a terrible cop_ , she realised miserably, as Gavin stormed out as well, a different door slamming in the hall. 

Silence. 

‘Connor?’ she asked tentatively. ‘Will-‘ 

‘ _Leave_ ,’ the android said viciously, looking at her coldly. ‘No wonder you were never made detective.’ 

Tina did a double take, wounded. That was low. 

‘I-‘ 

‘Come back when you can handle a real investigation.’ 

And this time, she did leave. 

And she was sick.

A _real heart_. 

And - oh, she _had_ to be right about Gavin. People didn't just look at each other like that. 

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hah. Well, what else was she going to assume?


	25. Nice Tragic Past- How The Fuck Do I Respond???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin explains what happened to him at the hands of his brother, and Nines figures out a lead in the case.
> 
> This is getting weird, now- Nines never imagined having such a weird connection to his tormentor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nines in general does not know what is going on- but he's trying to understand Gavin, at least.  
> And maybe.... he doesn't hate androids as much as he pretends...

_What was that about?_

Nines was sitting in the dark living room.

He couldn't discern whether he was feeling upset or not- but he had known he had to get away from all of them. Yelling silently, angry faces and violent gestures that made him feel afraid he was going to be hit.

Gavin and Chen's sickened faces when they had seen him replayed over and over in his mind. 

Gavin leaping away from him in absolute horror. 

He had forgotten he had not yet seen the full extent of the psychotic labarotory experiment.

(sick sick sick sick sick)

And Gavin--so angry, Connor and Tina staring at him and Nines in absolute disbelief, after he denied Connor access to his memory. 

He had done that as to avoid exposing Gavin, because he was sure Connor looking through his head for 'Kamski' would bring up Gavin's secret, and the image of Gavin, sitting with plastic clearly poo outlined in his chest- plastic. 

Nines had thought they must have found out about Gavin's past anway, because why else would they have seemed so shocked and accusatory,. definitely overreacting to his refusal? 

He has to leave, then, desperate to get away from their anger and fear.

But he wanted to know - what had brought the investigation to such a disastrous end? 

_Read 14.23_

Gavin did not reply to the message for twenty seven minutes, despite reading it after three.

_they're fucking bitches both of them_

Well.

That was unhelpful, but Nines could read the viciousness in Gavin's typed words.

_What did they say?_

_u don't even want to know_

He was growing more curious at Gavin's reluctance to tell him.

_What_??

_..._

_..._

_..._

Nines wasn't an impatient person, but he was heading down that path as he sat in the dark, reading the display on his eye, which was still all out of focus. Finally:

_chen thinks we slept together? and that's literally the fucking funniest thing ive ever heard in my life skjsksjss but she was so serious and connor believes her???_

And another:

_= &) #="? #!"! "! #! /" /"" _

Nines could barely comprehend the first message, let alone decipher the second, despite his knowledge of texting vernacular (that he chose not to partake in.) 

Slept? Together? _Gavin_?

What the hell had led Chen to that conclusion? Nines had barely any understanding of humans and their complete lack of logic, but that was actually insane for a multitude of reasons.

No wonder Gavin had seemed so horrified.

_Why would she think that?_

_ksjksjsksjss idkkkk?? fucking idiots istg kms_

Gavin was making less and less sense, but Nines got the general feeling that he was just as confused as he himself was.

He didn't really know what to reply in this kind of situation, so he closed the display and stared ahead again, at the dark outline of the piano in front of him. 

He could feel the heart inside him, a strangers heart, beating despite all odds, and he was fighting a growing urge to try and rip it out himself, drain all the human blood and remove the eye. 

He wanted to get out of this body- this useless, broken one, unable to hear or speak or see properly or do anything.

And just on cue-

**_> err///SYSTEM SHUTDOWN< _ **

**_> 306/< _ **

**_> //REBOOTING 78%/< _ **

This time he woke up and the time had somehow lapsed several hours, and Gavin Reed was in front of him, looking harrowed.

Seven messages poured into his system at once, and he tried to open them through his laggy software, barely able to see even with his android eye, with absolutely no idea where he even was right now. 

_what do i do??_

_disphsit help?_

_nines_

_connors not answering the phone hey dude wake up please_

_nines_

_what do i do wake up pls_

_can i do something_

Nines realised he was in a completely different room- Gavin's room, the lights too bright, wreaking havoc with his eyesight.

The heart was still beating. Miraculously.

Gavin was biting his lip as he sat up, making an 'are you okay?' gesture with his hands.

Nines looked down to see thirium on his hands, and on Gavin's as well. He put a hand up to his face and realised his nose must have been bleeding again; thankfully blue, not red. 

**_> SYSTEM 100%/< _ **

Suddenly able to see better, he saw he was somehow on Gavin's bed, the man himself sitting on the end of it, his hair so distressed he looked as though he had stuck his finger in an electrical outlet.

The floor was glowing pink and orange from the sunset outside, a trail of thirium spotted across it.He realised Gavin must have somehow dragged him all the way here. 

_Sorry_ , he said, in a brief message.

Why did this keep happening? And was it cause for alarm?

_And why was Connor not answering the phone?_

He asked the same question to Gavin, cutting off the man's speech bubble, and watched his eyes grow darker.

_he's a dickhead u know that right?_

Gavin looked challengingly at him, as if daring him to contradict.

To be honest, Nines was feeling kind of the same. Why had he left like that? And then not answered the phone, knowing it was probably an emergency if _Gavin_ was ringing? 

He swung his legs off the bed in an awkward motion, trying to avoid kicking Gavin, and wiped the drying thirium from under his nose with the end of his jumper. 

He looked sideways and caught Gavin looking at him, at where he had exposed the scarred plastic of his body. He let the end fall quickly, remembering how horrified Gavin had looked at him before.

_it's bad huh_

In reference to what? His body? The situation? Life?

Gavin had his arms folded across his chest, his phone glowing in front of him, restlessly tapping his foot on the floor. 

Nines felt now was as good a time as any to ask him more about Elijah.

Maybe it was _his_ turn to find out something horrifying about the other man, instead of _him_ always being the one who has walked off the set of a horror movie. 

_What did he do to you?_

Gavin stared at his phone, his jaw set.

Nines almost backtracked, realising maybe now was actually _not_ a good time, but then Gavin began typing with shaky hands, stilted and slow.

_lung. its plastic. idk what the fuck is actually going on in there but it doesn’t bother me._

_that's why i never went to the hospital for my nose lmao_

(Gavin added 'lmao' to a lot of things that were not funny.) 

Nines blinked at him. That's why Gavin's nose had set all wrong.

And that was the plastic bit visible slightly under the man’s skin.

Elijah had… replaced his lung? 

_Why_?

_before androids it was real biotech. computers inside the brain. and then he was making all this stuff, lungs and kidneys and hearts and shit, that were supposed to be like, computer versions of the real thing, because he wanted to make real humans, like he was always taking about going further and creating life or something._

Grey, stormy eyes, the golden sun casting a fearsome shadow over them. Nines could see it was painful for Gavin to even think about this, let alone talk about it.

_Did you volunteer?_

Gavin threw his head back to to the ceiling, closing his eyes for a minute.

Nines watched him, wanting to say something, but utterly silent, still. He hated it. 

_he fukingn drugged me to do it_

_he asked me to help a million times and I always said no but he just snapped and fucking did it anyway_

So Kamski had absolutely no regard for anything. The law, or ethical science practices, or morals or anything even remotely human. 

Nines had more to ask, but Gavin was still typing, fingers flying over the keys, his face going angrier.

i _woke up in the fucking biology lab and he was just like?? it worked??_

_he didn't even say sorry and i knew he was insane then and that he was a genius but he was crazy you know i didn’t notice when we were kids but he was a psychopath_

Messages coming so quickly Nines could barely read them; trying to read around Gavin’s typos and absence of any coherent punctuation.

_and i felt so weird like freezing cold inside i guess that was thirium_

_and i spent two weeks just coughing it up with like a litre of blood but he kept me in the dorm room and said not to tell anyone and i didn’t bc i couldn’t even stand up_

A golden glinting tear was running down the side of Gavin's face. He looked broken. 

_and when i was better he was already famous and he left me_

Thin, and tired, and broken.

Nines looked at him and wanted to kill Elijah Kamski.

He had done that to his own flesh and blood, and now he was doing it again.

Thirium stained hands holding an android heart.

His brother's thirium stained hands, shaking as he told the same android the story.

_nines_?

Gavin was looking at him, blue smeared on his cheek where he had tried to surreptitiously wipe away his tears.

Nines remembered the picture of him from some defunct Facebook archive, grinning, bright eyed and happy. 

_What happened after?_

_he made his first proper android not long after._

_i guess worked out OK so he was able to make all the other parts and shit._

_i watched him write his thesis while i almost died on the floor of our dorm room and he wouldn't let me go to hospital and then he left._

Unlike most androids, RK900 had not been built with the ability to cry. He was a singular prototype, and that had been overlooked as completely unnecessary, which was probably the only reason he wasn't _also_ crying right now. 

Nines couldn't stop himself, desperate to say something, but utterly unable to make a sound, give him anything of comfort, acknowledge his sorrow. 

Instead he did the best he could—he reached out and put his hand over Gavin's.

The man looked up in surprise, but he didn't move it.

Nines felt angry. It was weird, to feel so emotional all of a sudden after so long of feeling nothing but subdued, dim fear.

Both blue stained hands, sitting on opposite ends of the bed.

Never in a thousand lifetimes would Nines have imagined talking to the man who had made his life an utter misery like this.

Gavin reached out with his other hand and touched it lightly to Nines chest, where the android knew he could feel the strangers heart beating slowly, thudding foreignly in his silent body. 

_he did the same to u ,_ he typed, his hand moving awkwardly under Nines'. 

_..._

And then he whipped his hand away and looked frantically at the door, getting urgently to his feet and looking at the door, suddenly afraid.

_What_? Nines asked, puzzled.

Gavin frowned, glancing at his still unlocked phone, before sitting down again, the tension leaving him.

_thought i heard tincan_

Oh. Nines wondered why this was cause for alarm- seeming like more a cause for annoyance. Luckily Gavin elaborated:

_u know he believes chen ksjssk_

_And_?

_sooo he’ll beat me up?_

This was bizarre. Nines would have laughed if Gavin hadn’t looked so embarrassed.

He didn’t really know what you were supposed to say in this kind of situation, so he stood up, staggering on his damaged leg, planning a quick exit, skirting around a smashed cup that was in pieces on the floor. 

He turned back to Gavin before he opened the door, who was also standing, back at the window, his eyes suspiciously shiny again. 

Nines was going to say something, but left instead, knowing there wasnt anything he could do, that wouldn't be cold and impersonal through text message.

He sat in the kitchen, watching the light growing dark, the clock ticking away in his head, remembering a time Gavin had once jabbed him in the chest as he had gone past and he had dropped all the files he was holding, temporarily incapacitated by the jolt to his thirium regulator.

' _Nothing in there but plastic, is there?'_ he had sneered.

' _Plastic freak.'_

And now a new memory—Gavin gently, tentatively putting a hand to his chest, Nines somehow the more alive one, almost just as human as he was.

Connected through plastic and bone and thirium and blood and- not friends, but maybe no longer enemies. 

And then all of a sudden Nines had a realisation.

Kamski had taken Gavin’s lung. And given Nines a heart.

Which implied that at some point the reclusive Cyberlife founder had been involved in organ trafficking, and perhaps was again. 

And _somebody_ must know more about that. 

Nines was still a police officer, albeit a damaged one. And maybe—this was a lead.

Unfortunately- a lead meant the case. Investigation.

And the case meant a certain _other_ person had to be involved. Two people, actually.

Who both apparently had a habit of leaping to nonsensical conclusions. 

If Nines had had breath he would have sighed. 

_Fuck_ , as Gavin would have said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> awww, are they.... bonding??? maybe???? perhaps.....have we reached the enemies to friends bit....?  
> (all the chapter titles are becoming bastille lyrics for some reason--fits the existentialism I guess ksjsksj)


	26. Elijah Is Absolutely Gonna Shoot This Messenger-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor returns to Jericho to see if he can find help among some old friends, who are the only people apparently happy at the moment.
> 
> And Elijah Kamski receives some bad news, that turns into something very interesting.....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pros of this chapter-  
> > Markus and Simon being happy  
> > Making fun of Connor  
> > Making fun of Gavin who I have decided dresses horribly 
> 
> Cons of this chapter-  
> > Fuck, Elijah is onto Gavin........

Connor had not been to Jericho in quite a while. In fact, he had not gone back at all, despite many, many invitations he had declined on pretty arbitrary grounds—work, mostly. 

But it was time. Desperate times. 

It was the first place he had thought of, after storming out of Reed's house, about to punch something, preferably Reed himself. 

He was quite surprised to see the rusting monolith of a sunken boat had disappeared, and in its place was a collection of small community apartments surrounding a large, well-kept garden. 

He was still welcomed back unquestioned, as if he had never been gone, by a smiling Markus and Simon, the latter of whom was carrying a squirming little girl with pigtails on his back.

‘Connor!’ Markus exclaimed, coming forward onto the street to shake his hand. ‘How’s it going! Also, what the _hell_ are you wearing?'

‘I’m uh, all right,’ Connor said, shaking hands with Simon as well, and nodding at North, who was hiding behind a tree and trying to go unnoticed.

She stared back at him, unsmiling. 

She probably hadn’t forgiven him for siding with Markus’ ‘peaceful’ approach. 

Simon grinned. ‘What the hell _are_ you wearing, Connor?’ he asked, gently dropping the kid onto her feet. 'Don't tell me our great leader is having an emo phase?' 

‘Long story,’ Connor said, waving at the girl. ‘’Who’s this? ‘

‘This is Charlie. Charlie, this is Connor, a friend,’ 

The girl looked nervously at Connor, pulling at one of her ponytails, and he noticed a yellow spinning LED on her temple. One of the android children, he realised, one of very few ever made. 

‘Hey there, Charlie,’ he said, smiling as he looked up at Markus and Simon. ‘Whose is she?’ 

‘His,’ they both said in unison, before looking at each other and laughing.

‘Ours, then,’ Markus amended, giving Simon a dig in the ribs. ‘Anyway, Connor, what brings you here? Here to kill me again?’ 

Simon burst out laughing. Markus was joking, even North smirking from where she was skulking in the background, but Connor still felt embarrassed about what he had done while still a machine. 

Good to know everyone else found it hilarious. 

‘Hah, very funny,’ he said, without laughing. ‘I’m actually here with a bit of a problem.’ 

Markus frowned, him and Simon exchanging a glance. ‘Well, lets see if we can help,’ he said. ‘Come with us.’ 

Connor followed him and Simon, who were holding hands and swinging the delighted little girl between them. 

_At least some of us are happy_ , Connor thought, slightly bitter.

He noticed an incoming call from Reed as he climbed the stairs, confirmed by his cell phone buzzing, but he ignored it. He really did not want to talk to him, especially not now. 

He was seriously running the risk of just killing the man. Chen was right about thee being something weird going on with him and Nines, but he really, _really_ did not want to even imagine she was right about what exactly that was. 

Jericho was nice. Well lit apartments full of android occupants, some with LED's and some without, many of whom greeted Connor enthusiastically as he walked behind Markus and Simon. 

It was weird, he thought, to be so recognised. He had almost forgotten he was considered a hero, since he spent so much time with humans, rarely ever actually spending time with any other androids. 

Maybe he should do it more. 

Charlie was babbling to him as they went up the stairs, clutching tightly to Simon’s hand as she told him all about her dad’s job as an android doctor. 

‘Doctor?’ Connor asked, curious. 

‘Yeah,’ said Simon turning around. ‘Instead of engineer, which is a bit… _y’know_.’

‘That might be quite helpful to me, actually,’ Connor replied, cheered up by this very fortunate news. If Simon was fixing androids, he might be able to fix Nines. 

Markus opened the door to one of the apartments on the top floor, letting them all in to a small but cosy apartment, Connor immediately thought ‘cottage core,’ (he really was cursed by having all the knowledge of the Internet at all times). 

The floor was absolutely covered with LEGO, for some reason, scattered all over the floor like confetti, tiny yellow people, skyscrapers and space rockets. 

‘Sorry about the mess,’ Markus laughed, ‘but we can’t get her to put it away.’

'Yesh, it's a good job we don't feel pain, because apparently it hurts like hell to stand on this stuff,' Simon said, clearing some of it off the kitchen chairs so Connor could sit down. 

Charlie suddenly grabbed Connor’s hand and began dragging him over to a miniature reconstruction of a city, explaining all about how it had been built. 

‘A little architect,’ Connor told her, watching her LED spin blue. 

‘So, Connor, what was it you wanted to talk about?’ Markus asked, taking off his jacket.

‘Yeah, what prompted you to show up looking like a 20’s alt kid?’ Simon added, looking pointedly at Connor’s outfit, which was admittedly pretty unfashionable. 

(It wasn’t _his_ fault Reed still dressed like it was twenty years ago. Also, he was shorter than Connor, making it look a lot worse.) 

‘I have an android that’s been badly.. damaged,’ Connor explained, Simon looking up, intrigued. 

‘Damaged how?’ 

‘Um, it’s a long story,’ he said. ‘Can I just-‘ he held up his hand, the skin already retracting. 

‘Sure,’ Markus shrugged, looking puzzled. He held out his own hand and Connor held it, transferring his memories to Markus.

He concentrated on showing him Nines. 

_Nines blood heart Kamski experiment facility Nines-_

‘ _What the hell!’_ Markus leapt backwards, grabbing his hand away from Connors, his LED red. ‘That is- what the _hell_?’ 

‘What is it?’ Simon asked, concerned, Charlie looking up from her LEGO in curiosity. 

‘Oh, that is _bad_ ,’ Markus said, shaking his head. It was strange to see the normally calm man so distressed. 

Simon grabbed Markus’ hand, seeing Connor’s memories through him, while Connor watched tensely. 

‘Oh, _no_!’ Simon exclaimed, an almost identical reaction to Markus. ‘Who the hell did that?’ 

‘We don’t actually know,’ Connor admitted, ‘but we think Elijah Kamski is involved.’

There was a silence. 

‘ _Kamski_? ‘ said Simon, after a second, utterly stunned. 'Like, _Cyberlife_ Kamski?' 

‘Who’s Kamski, Daddy? ‘ piped up Charlie. 

‘Not now, sweetie, ‘ Simon hushed. 'So…. Kamski is back in business? ‘

‘As a _horror movie villain?_ ’ Markus exclaimed. He seemed a lot more shaken by this than Simon, for whatever reason. 

‘I don’t really know what’s going on, but is there anyway you could do something for Nines?’ Connor asked pleadingly.

‘Nines?’ 

‘The android.’ 

Simon and Markus looked at each other. 

‘Well, I could… _try?_ ’ Simon said doubtfully, seemingly more to himself than to anyone else. 

‘That would be awesome,’ Connor said greatfully. ‘Anything at all, to be honest.’ 

‘Where is he now?’ Simon asked. ‘I could come take a look.’ 

‘Oh, he’s with a… friend,’ Connor said quickly, ‘but I think it’s better if I brought him here.’ 

‘A friend?’ 

‘You left him with a friend… like that?’ Markus said curiously. 

‘Yes?’ Connor said, sounding unconvincing even to himself. He didn’t really want to explain he had left him with a self-professed android hater, who was basically his arch-enemy. 

‘Must be trustworthy.'

‘Hmm?’ Connor was confused by Markus’ meaningful voice. 

‘Connor, if by a friend you mean a partner, that’s fine.’ 

Connor almost choked (metaphorically, of course). He started laughing, much to the bemusement of Simon and Markus. 

‘A _partner_? Geez, if you met this guy you would see why that was completely ridiculous,’ he said, barely able to talk for laughing. 

_Not everyone is as focused on human stuff like relationships as you two_ , he wanted to say. 

‘Right,’ Simon said, grinning. ‘You never seemed like the romantic type, anyway, I must say.’ 

‘What’s romantic, Daddy?’ 

‘Shhh, Charlie.’ 

Connor, still laughing, stood up and formed the skin over his hand again, trying to sober up. 

‘Okay, so can I bring him by later on, then?’ 

‘Sure,’ Markus replied. ‘Although this is definitely more Simon’s area of expertise. ‘

‘Bring him to the warehouse, building Five, ‘ Simon added, as Markus showed him to the door, Charlie waving behind him. 

‘I'll have someone look into the activity of Kamski, ‘ Markus said quietly in the hallway. 'See if we can find anything similar.’

‘Thank you,’ Connor said sincerely, looking into Markus’ mismatched eyes, so much less disturbing then Nines. ‘I appreciate this, I really do.’

‘I know you do, Connor.’ He turned back to re-enter the apartment. ‘And don’t write yourself off. Simon not always right about people!’ 

Connor stopped at the top of the stairs, confused. 

‘What?’ 

‘I’m sure you could be romantic, if you tried. But you need better clothes.’

Connor made a face as the other android disappeared into the apartment, cackling. 

Some androids were clearly embracing the human lifestyle a lot more than he was, he realised. Connor had not even given a thought to getting involved in friendships or relationships the way the Jericho androids had. 

‘I do not have a romantic bone in my body,’ he yelled after Markus, glad for the laugher to distract him from the fact that he now somehow had to convince Nines to come to Jericho. 

First off though, he needed to go home. He was _not_ talking to any more people dressed like this. 

And- it was time to find Hank. 

_************************************ _

'What the fuck do you mean, _it's gone_?'

'The RK unit.. uh... uhm..' stammered the unlucky assistant, clearly reluctant to deliver the news to their boss. 

'What the fuck happened to it?' snapped Elijah, who was not big believer in 'don't shoot the messenger. '

'Well, you told us to throw it out... and we _did_... but.. uhm.. its gone. Someone took it out of the trash, or something.'

The assistant was pale, red lipstick looking ridiculously bright on a quivering mouth. 

Elijah groaned. This was not the kind of news he wanted to receive on a Monday morning, especially with last week's failure still fresh on his mind.

People showing up in his office to tell him bad news was very low on his list of 'tolerable things.' 

He just couldn't get that _goddamn_ _thing_ to work.

'Who took it?' he asked, rubbing his eyes and swiveling around to his desk again. 

'We don't know yet. But we're getting the security footage.'

'Well, more power to them if they can get it to fucking _work_ ,' he sighed. Then he realised something.

'You took the heart out of it, right?' he asked, spinning back around urgently to face the assistant. 

They went paler, if that was possible.

'Uhm..'

'Please tell me you did not leave the _fucking_ _heart_ in it!' he snapped.

This was bad. Bad bad bad. If someone had taken the android, with the heart still in it-

'That wasn't--I don't - I-' 

'Shut up!' he yelled, getting out of his chair and storming to the door. 'Do I have to do _everything_ myself around here?' 

'Sir-' 

He brushed past the assistant and stormed down the labyrinth of corridors to the security office. Several surprised employees looked up as he burst in the door. 

'Which one of you _fuckers_ was meant to take out the heart?' 

No one said anything, his stupid, useless employees shooting each other nervous glances over the computer they were all gathered around. 

'Well?' Elijah crossed his arms impatiently. 

One of them spoke up, pushed slightly to the front by a co- worker.

'Sir, don't know if you told anyo-' 

'Shut the fuck up!' he said malevolently. 'Common sense, you _absolute dumbfucks!'_

The employee shrank back. A biologist, evident by the bloody lab coat. The engineers were all covered in thirium, instead. 

Elijah sighed deeply. Okay, they could fix this. 

'Have you gotten the footage?' 

'We're just looking through it now, sir,' somebody said, their voice trembling slightly. 

Elijah pushed somebody aside violently and stood in front of the computer, knocking someone else's hand aside and scrolling through the display himself. 

He watched as one of the engineers -he didn't know anybody's names-- hauled the shutdown, failed experiment of an android out the back and tossed it with some effort into the recycling. 

'Sir-' 

'How many times am I going to have to tell you to shut up,?' he said sarcastically, without looking to see who had spoken. 

He pressed fast forward, and watched as absolutely nothing happened for the next seventeen hours. 

Then-

'What the fuck?' he said wonderingly, curious scientists crowding around for a closer look. 

The android was climbing out, by itself. 

Hauling itself out, half of it not even activated, but sure enough dragging itself on twisted legs out of the compound. 

'Well,' he said, sitting back with his chin on his hands. 'That was unexpected.' 

'But where did it go?' somebody mumbled. 

Elijah switched to the front camera, where the android collapsed into shadow. He was about to ask if any of these incompetent dumbasses had actually gone out there to look for it, when suddenly, stumbling down the street out of nowhere came a figure. 

A very familiar figure. 

_Absolutely no way._

'Hey, sir, its you!' somebody exclaimed, the same intern who had delivered the message earlier. 

'It is not!' he snapped, still staring in disbelief at the screen. 

The unlikely person walked straight into the android, which collapsed again, and it did not move any further. 

The man called someone on the phone after panicking for a while, and sat, clearly drunk, for several minutes until a car pulled up and dragged them both inside.

' _What the fuck?'_ Elijah breathed. This was both the most coincidental and also terrible thing that had happened to him in a long time. 

Insane thing number one: The driver of the car was an RK800. Connor, an android he had actually met over a year ago, during the height of the revolution. 

Insane, and much more pressing issue number two: That was _Alexander_. His _brother_. 

He ran a hand through his hair, aware of the gaping faces of his employees, who to their knowledge had just seen their own boss with a different haircut show up, intoxicated, and make away with his own defunct experiment. 

_Jesus._ Alex hadn't changed a bit. 

'Right,' he said, trying to stop his thoughts for a second so he could get a handle on this situation. 'You find that car licence plate-' he said, pointing at a random lab-coated engineer, '-and you find out who that... _guy_ was,' he ordered, pointing at a biologist. 

The biologist raised an eyebrow slightly, clearly saying ' _well, that looked mighty like it was either your twin or doppelganger_ , _Mr_ _Kamski_ ,' but nodded anyway. 

Elijah stormed out back to office in much the way he had stormed in, his usually composed and mysterious demeanour discarded. He flung himself in his chair and sat with his head on the desk for several minutes. 

This was _bad_. 

His brother had just taken away what was a pretty incriminating experiment, i.e an RK with a human heart stuck in it. And an eye, too, he remembered in despair. 

His brother! 

He had not seen Alexander in almost twenty years. He was frankly surprised to see he was still alive, but gratified to see his experiment had stood the test of time. 

Not that that mattered. He had known it would work just fine.

After the initial phase of _almost_ dying, Alexander had been perfectly healthy. 

He sat back in his chair and opened his laptop, doing a search for 'Alexander Kamski,' which returned nothing of interest. 

He decided to do a little more sleuthing.

He _was_ a genius, after all. 

He went to the Detroit City Civics website, and did a little bit of hacking to gain access to the Census Information. 

If his brother was here, he would definitely show up on this. 

Alexander Kamski- one result. 

Elijah smiled, pleased with himself, and leaned in closer to read something _very_ curious- Alexander Kamski had changed his name in 2022. The records were there, fully detailed. 

'Gavin Reed,' he said aloud. 'Very interesting, _Alex_.' 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might not be able for as frequent updates coming up to exams, so bear with me --I can't fail all my classes for DBH fanfic, unfortunately skjsj<3  
> edit:right so the next chapter is actually my favourite so far and I should have it by Friday!


	27. Three Days, Three Dumbasses And One Disaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin and Nines anxiously await news from Connor, who has disappeared into thin air.  
> When he does return, however--things take a turn for the worst--again.......

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aha! Friday like I promised, although it is technically Saturday rn lmao
> 
> fun things:  
> > Gavin and Nines have fun together in what is basically quarantine  
> > Nines finally cleans up all the fucking blood   
> > Gavin confronts Connor about being annoying again... 
> 
> not so fun things  
> > Nines and Connor throw hands (metaphorically and literally)   
> >um.. um.. Gavin? Hello?? U doing okay??

**_Day One//13:21_ **

_Do you think he's okay?_

_he's fine dipshit_

_Are you sure?_

_would've seen it on the news if he died so ig he's ok_

_probably_

_Okay_.

Gavin woke up three hours after this conversation, feeling disoriented after a nap he has not remembered taking. 

_Well, I guess I'm practically nocturnal now_ , he thought, rubbing his eyes which were hurting in the bright winter sun. He felt cold- probably from sleeping on the floor, instead of his bed; he had no idea why he had done this. 

He ventured into the kitchen, slightly dazed, looking for Nines, or Connor, who he did not expect to find. 

He had not returned since the disastrous interview. It had been a very tense two days in his apartment, just him watching Nines, who was mostly just sitting quietly. However, Gavin had been edgy since his shutdown, and was reluctant to let it happen again.

And Connor had vanished, seemingly never to return, nor answering the phone to Gavin, or Nines. Both of them were starting to worry he had been taken by Kamski as well, or something equally terrible, and Gavin had briefly of contacting fucking Tina Chen about it.

He immediately noticed something was up when he fumbled his way into the kitchen--the blinds were open, and all the junk he had heaped on various counters was now arranged in neat lines, keys, letters, random pieces of paper and cutlery. 

'What the fuck?' he said aloud, looking around in dismay at what was clearly the work of a mad man, before realising that it was obviously Nines who had done this. 

The story was the same in the living room; the papers had been cleared, the bloodstains removed, the surfaces dusted. 

'Where the _fuck_ is all my music?' Gavin shouted pointlessly, knowing Nines wouldn't answer. A copy of Chopin's Revolutionary Etjde was placed neatly on top of the piano. 

(Clearly the android was ambitious about how good he actually was.)

'Damn _fucking_ android,' Gavin muttered, annoyed, but also kind of relieved to have the rooms cleared up; at least it no longer looked like he was in the habit of performing cult sacrifices on the living room floor. 

He heard a bang in the bathroom, and to his surprise entered to find Nines in the shower, fully dressed with his sleeves rolled up, revealing pink, bloodstreaked arms.

He jumped and stared at Gavin in surprise, dropping the sponge he was holding _(when the fuck did I buy sponges?_ Gavin thought, mystified) and stepping back,holding his hands up, turning on the water abruptly as he banged on the faucet. 

Gavin had to laugh as water sprayed out all over the android, fumbling to turn it off again, so tall his head was taking most of the water. 

Completely soaking wet, hair hanging in clumps over his eyes, Gavin tried his best to stop laughing at the android, but it was damn near impossible, as he gave him a deadpan stare, standing dripping in cold water. 

Gavin took out his phone to ask what the fuck the android was doing, seeing that he had gotten there first with a text. 

_I'm cleaning. Your house is a mess._

_Also I never cleaned up in here, so sorry about that._

Gavin, who had actually not been in the shower for a concerning amount of time, nodded in thanks.

_ty but its easier to do that with the water off tho._

_Right. Lesson learned._

_Also I need new clothes._... 

Gavin rolled his eyes. The android refused to go home and get his own clothes, much to Gavin's annoyance, as someone else wearing your clothes tended to highlight your questionable fashion choices.

(Also- the fact you were short.)

To be fair, if Gavin were Nines he would not have been keen to go walking the city streets, Kamski on his back and the less-than-friendly public who would definitely be terrified of his unnatural face, unaccustomed to less than perfect androids.

Gavin coughed, his head still swimming strangely, and told Nines to take whatever from his wardrobe. He wasn't worried about Nines snooping the way he was with Connor, for some reason he didn't really know. 

_Maybe because Nines isn't such an annoying asshole_ , he though bitterly. 

Speaking of-

_Anything from Connor?_

_fuck offffffff ill tell u if there is disphit_

_No need for that. I was just asking._

_So no._

_no_

They looked at each other for a moment. 

_Where the hell is he?_

**Day Two:15.45**

Nines finally sat down on the sofa, taking a break pacing in circles around the room. Gavin threw him a frustrated glance from the piano where he had been banging away at it all day, anger evident in the way he was striking the keys. 

The light flickered overhead, plunging the room into darkness for a brief second before returning to normal.

_I should change that,_ Nines thought vaguely, staring up at the ceiling, tapping his foot absently on the floor. 

He was worried. Scared. 

Connor had not come back. Nor had he called, texted, or made contact of any form, leading Nines to the inevitable conclusion that he had also been taken by Kamski, of had been hit by a train, or some other random, horrific catastrophe had taken place--and Nines didn't know what to do.

He had asked Gavin, several times, several hundred times, if he had heard anything, but the answer was always a tersely typed ' _no_ ', generally accompanied by some variation of the word ' _dipshit._ '

Gavin was an enigma. 

They had been skulking around each other in the apartment for four days now; Nines silently pacing, finished cleaning anything he could clean, Gavin spilling coffee on every available surface and watching him covertly from behind several pages of sheet music.

Nines was constantly confused by his random changes in mood and temper- liable to swing from hyper to depressed at the flick of an invisible switch. 

He knew the detective was anxious about the possibility of him shutting down again, but he _also_ knew he didn't like him, but he _also_ had told him about his brother, but he _also_ wouldn't talk to him anymore, so he really was at a blank as to what their relationship was. The supercomputer he had for a mind did not compute human emotion very well. 

Hate. Trust. How did these mix? How _could_ they? There was only one thing Nines could be sure of- if he was going to hurt him, he would have done it by now.

So maybe he was okay. For now. 

He had noticed today that Gavin was becoming ill. Nines may not have been able to hear, but he could see him coughing as he played, pale and sweaty, wearing two jumpers and shivering slightly. He couldn't discern anything else though, without touching him- and he knew that hell would freeze over before Gavin would let him do _that_. 

Whether this was cause for alarm, he didn't know, but he wished Connor would come back. Connor was smart, and trustworthy, and all of him worked properly - his mind and his body. He would know what to do- how to help Gavin, and how to fix Nines, and how to stop feeling like there was a void inside your head. 

The easiest thing for Nines to do was just go home, but he knew that it was likely he would shutdown again, and didn't know what would happen if he was on his own. 

And he hated to admit it, but he didn't want to leave Gavin. He was quite a rash and volatile person, and he had envisioned several drastic outcomes to leaving him alone at such a _time--especially_ when there was a high likelihood of his brother resurfacing at any given moment. 

He watched him now, nodding his head in time as he played a quick run, Nines unable to hear but able to gauge the rhythm from his fingers. As far as he could tell, Gavin was pretty talented--he had left that one piece out for him at random, but he was playing it well- as best as he could tell from watching his shaking fingers. 

Silence. 

Not as awkward as normal. But Nines was unable to stop worrying about Connor, a loop of terrible possibilities on repeat in his mind, and as he watched Gavin doubling over in another coughing fit, he realised that he was worried about him, too. 

_There is too much worrying involved in life,_ he thought, as the light bulb gave another flicker and this time did not turn on again. 

**_Day Three- 17:47_ **

'Sir, your change!'

Gavin was not listening to the cashier, as his attention had been caught by something far more concerning--namely, Connor.

Passing by the window of the corner store, walking hurriedly, but looking very pleased with himself.

'Sir!'

Gavin was already gone, completely forgetting the groceries had had actually ventured out to buy at the persuasion of Nines, who had informed him politely that living off coffee and spaghetti hooped was going to kill him. 

The shop bell dinged ominously as he charged onto the street.

'Hey! _Asshole_!'

Connor turned around a little way up the street, Gavin storming up to him. Before he could even react, Gavin started yelling at him, his throat scratchy and painful. 

'Where the fuck have _you_ been?'

'I-'

'And not answering the phone, you bastard? What the _fuck_ is wrong with you!'

Connor looked as though Gavin had slapped him, which he was dangerously close to actually doing.

'I went to get help, Reed,' Connor said in a hushed voice, clearly keen to lose the attention that Gavin was drawing from several passers-by. 'It just took longer than expected, because-'

'Because what, Tin Can? _What_ was so fucking urgent you couldn't even answer the phone?'

'Is there a _reason_ I should have answered it?' Connor asked annoyedly. 

'Yeah, your fucking friend went into _shutdown!_ He was bleeding and shit and I didn't know what to do! Because _you_ weren't fucking here! '

Gavin drew in a breath as he looked at Connor's stunned face. He said nothing. 

'And, when he got working again, he was worried about you!' He jabbed a finger in the air beside Connor's head. 'You managed to get _Nines_ worried about _you_!' He coughed again, his chest hurting each time he spoke. 

_God, was this stupid cold annoying._

A woman passing by shot a nervous look at the two men arguing. Connor stepped back in alarm. 

'I'm sorry, Reed, okay?' he said, holding his hands up, 'I had a lot of stuff to do, but it's done now, and I have help for Nines!' 

'Does the help involve fucking abandoning him with me again? While you go shopping, or whatever?' Gavin retorted, waving a hand at what was clearly a new outfit. 

'Reed-' 

'You know what? Shut the fuck up.'

Gavin shouldered past Connor and started walking down the street back to his apartment, his hands in his pockets, seething with anger, trying to suppress another cough. How _dare_ that bastard walk out like that and then just return, as if he had done absolutely nothing wrong? 

It had been horrible to see Nines, who was barely all there in his head, pacing around or sitting blankly and staring into space for hours at a time, periodically sending Gavin messages that all ran along the lines of - 

_Anything from Connor?_

_i don't care at this point._

The last reply Gavin had sent, as he lay restless and freezing in bed, trying to stave off nightmares that would not go away, his heart beating painfully against the plastic lung.

'Reed! Hold up!' 

Connor jogged up to him with ease, obviously annoyingly fast, walking beside him as they turned a corner. 

'I went to Jericho, okay? And my friends are going to help Nines, if I can get him to go.'

' _You_ have friends?' Gavin muttered. 

Connor ignored this. 

'And then I had to go home to Hank, which was a whole thing, because he wanted to know where I was, _obviously_ -' 

'I don't care about your whole life story, dumbass!' Gavin snapped at him. 'I only cared about Nines!' 

Connor stopped short and stared at him, a piece of his normally tidy hair falling over his LED, obscuring it form view. 

_Wrong answer, dumbass._

'I mean-' Gavin said hastily, cut off by a cough, realising too late that to Connor the implications of that were that he was _a)_ a good person, or _b)_ he was 100% sleeping with Nines. 

_Guess which one Tin Can picks,_ he thought in a sarcastic game show host voice. 

_'You care about him?_ ' 

Connor's voice was steely. Gavin put a hand up to his nose, feeling where Connor had broken it the last time he had thought he was screwing around with Nines. 

'Like, I care that he doesn't die? In my house?' 

'So you do care about him? ' 

'No-I mean yes-no!' 

Gavin didn't even know if he actually did care about Nines. Like, yeah, he had told him his deepest traumatic secrets, but bonding over a shared connection with his psychopath brother didn't suddenly mean they were besties, or anything. 

Of course, he couldn't explain this to Connor. 

Gavin decided to keep walking, hopefully coming up with a miraculous way to sipel Connor's dangerous train of thought. His head hurt and he was shivering and he was too fucking sick to get into this argument with Connor.

He just wanted to go to bed.

'Reed, are you friends with him? Or something else?' Connor had once again caught up to him, and was giving him a death stare as they reached the steps of his apartment. 'Did you hurt him?' he said dangerously. 

_What a bitch._

'You know what? Ask _him_ ,' Gavin said, teeth chattering as he jammed his key in the lock, missing and stabbing it into the doorframe several times. 'Ask him, and maybe _he'll_ tell you I'm not the stone cold sociopath _you_ seem to think I am!'

'I never said-'

' _What are you doing to him, Reed? Did you hurt him, Reed? Here, I'll break your fucking nose, Reed! All you_ do is assume I'm the bad guy when maybe it's actually you!'

Connor said nothing as they entered the apartment. Gavin didn't bother looking at his face, completely focused on getting inside and to bed as quickly as possible. 

_Silence means I'm right_ , _anyway_ , he thought triumphantly.

'Nines? ' he called weakly into the room, smacking himself on the forehead as he remembered he couldn't hear. Thankfully, Nines came out of the kitchen and into the hallway anyway, dragging his bad leg behind him. His eyes widened when he saw Connor standing behind Gavin. 

Gavin had spent quite a ridiculous amount of time with the android now, but he still found him very mysterious. He hid a lot of emotion in some very emotionless eyes. 

But now, the blank eyes were angry, the blue and brown narrowed as he strode along the corridor, Gavin stumbling hastily out of the way and leaning against the wall, his legs feeling weird. 

Nines stopped in front of Connor, who had just raised his hands, when-

_Crack_. 

Gavin's mouth dropped open. Nines was holding his hand in the air, palm up from where he had just struck Connor in the face. 

The other android was stading completely still in shock, his face still turned away, thirium dribbling out of his nose. His LED was crimson. 

Nines turned his head and shot a glare at Gavin, a fierce glare that seemed more to be daring him to speak than anything, before launching into a vicious sequence of signs. 

Connor slowly turned his head back to watch him as he silently yelled, hands moving awkwardly yet elegantly. 

'What the hell?' he said aloud, pointlessly, before launching his own attack of signs. 

Gavin stood watching them vaguely, his vision blurring dangerously as he tried to balance against the wall. He was feeling worse and worse every minute that passed, the coughs becoming sharper and more debilitating. 

This was completely bizzare to watch; a completely silent argument between the two plastics.

He couldn't see anymore for a moment, shaking so hard his jaw hurt as he tried to stay standing, wanting to see the outcome of a fight he would have paid to watch, neither of the androids noticing his condition in their anger. 

It was hard to tell who was winning, and perhaps they never would know, as Gavin interrupted things slightly by collapsing onto the floor, convulsing in a fit of coughing. 

There was a metallic taste in his mouth, and Nines and Connor were both crouched over him, one of them with their hand on his forehead. 

Blinking hard, he saw Nines staring at his fingers, which had a streak of red on the white plastic. 

Who's bleeding?, he wondered, Nines fading out of his vision and abruptly back in, shaking him slightly, grabbing his shoulders with hard plastic hands as he coughed again, his whole body spasming in pain. 

The android put his finger in his mouth, for some bizarre reason, and then Gavin didn't know what was happening anymore. 

His brother was standing in front of him, then his mother, then Connor, then Nines, and then they all disappeared in a single instant, as if someone had pulled out a plug on the television. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >okay sorry for the extreme lack of proofreading I need sleep  
> >also sorry for plunging everyone into another disaster and also ending it with unconsciousness again.... hehe..:)  
> >sounds like Gavin has got V I R U S ksksjsjs


	28. Sorry About The Blood In Your Mouth/I Wish It Was Mine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin is going to die. How are Connor and Nines going to save him?  
> And as if that's not enough- Nines tangles with Kamski again..... who is definitely up to no good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you were hoping things aren't as bad as they seem... um.... 
> 
> fun things:  
> >Nines is a badass  
> >uh  
> >yeah this one's not so fun
> 
> not fun things:  
> >oof  
> >ah  
> >yikes

_**//14.23//** _

Nines didn't even realise he had hit Connor until he turned back, thirium streaming form his nose. 

'Where have you been! Why did you leave! Why didn't you answer! ' he signed malevolently at him. 

Nines was firing the questions at him, so quickly that Connor was unable to answer. He began signing rapidly back, having an almost completely seperate conversation that contained none. of the answers to his questions. 

' Did he hurt you? Did-' 

'Where have you been!' 

'What is going on?' 

'Why didn't you answer the phone!' 

Nines was angry. Connor should not have left him like that. Stupid, perfect Connor, undamaged, unbroken. He didn't even know what he was talking about- who had hurt him? 

He was about to ask, and then Gavin pitched forward in between them, falling to the ground in slow motion, cracking his head off the skirting board.

_What_? 

Nines had forgotten he was even there in his temper; now he was lying crumpled in the narrow hallway, twitching slightly.

Nines and Connor stared at each other in shock, anger temporarily abandoned. 

Connor reacted first, coughing beside him and turning him over, Nines focused on the smear of blood on the wall where he had banged his head. 

What? he asked over and over in his head, a loop of panicked questioning, before realising Connor was trying to snap him out o it, kicking at his ankle from the ground. 

Nines knelt down has well, seeing Gavin was still conscious, despite a large gash at his hairline where he had just hit it. He was coughing, hard, as if trying to hack up his own insides, but the most concerning thing was the vampiric streak of blood running from the side of his mouth.

Strangely dark, sticky blood.

 _Analyse it!_ Connor said in his head, a message instead of signing, holding Gavin up slightly, the man coughing irregularly now, looking surprised, clouded dark eyes widened. 

Nines swiped a sample of the blood in a panic, analysing it as quickly as possible, feeling disgusted as he put his finger in his mouth. He had always hated doing this.

The results-

_**> \THIRIUM DETECTED/// 21%<** _

_**> CRITICAL< ** _

Thirium? _Thirium_? Why was his blood full of thirium?

Thirium, fatal to humans if ingested.

Thirium, which was going to poison him. 

Connor grabbed his wrist to see the results, Gavin still now, coughing ceased, eyes closed and blood running in a slow stream from his mouth. His hair was matted from the wound on the top of his head, the contaminated blood running down the side of his face. 

Connor let go of his wrist and gaped at Gavin.

'What the hell? _Thirium_?' he asked in bewilderment. 

Nines looked up at Connor, aghast, the realisation punching him violently in the face.

Connor obviously did not know about Gavin's biology, and was completely confused as to why there would be thirium inside him.

And now Nines would have to explain it to him. 

'Its a long story-' he began, Connor swiping his hand though the aid to cut him off. 

'We don't have time, Nines! Tell me what's happening!' The android was clearly distressed, and Nines was almost confused by his demeanour. He had never gotten the impression Connor was particularly empathetic, despite having been deviant for far longer than him. 

_Explain. How?_

Nines knew Gavin would kill him for this, but he didn't seem in any shape to complain, unmoving, head lolling backwards as Nines wrenched up his layers of sweaters to reveal his chest to Connor--the scar, the plastic inside him clearly visible. 

Connor fell backwards out of his crouch slightly, his mouth agape. Nines pulled Gavin's shirt back down and tried to explain shortly to Connor, aware they were running out of time which each passing second. 

'His brother.' 

Connor was shaking his head in dismay, staring at Gavin as if he were a creature from another planet. 

' _Connor_!' Nines tried his best to get him to focus. 'It doesn't matter right now!' 

Connor closed his mouth, balancing on his heels again, looking around as if expecting help to miraculously emerge from thin air. 

'What do we do?' he asked. 

No. He was supposed to know what to do! Neither of them were medical androids, having no protocol for anything other than minor stitching and bone breakage.

Which would hardly help _now._

'I don't know!' Nines said desperately. 'Call an ambulance? A doctor?' 

'How would that help?' Connor shot back. 'This is not something a human doctor would know how to fix!' 

Nines waves his hands, with nothing to respond. He knew this, but that didn't leave them with any options at all. Unless.. 

'Kamski! He can fix it.' Nines said, aware this was a terrible idea, but the only one he could think of.

One with a less than 5% chance of success, but an idea none the less. 

Connor shook his head vigorously again, his LED a rapidly spinning yellow, watching Gavin who was now barely breathing on the ground, crimson streaks on his neck. Nines pulled off his own sweater and held it against his head in an attempt to stem the bleeding. 

'We can't go to Kamksi! There's no way that would work!' Connor exclaimed, pressing his finger into the side of his head so hard he almost drew blood. 

'He's going to die, Connor, what else can we do?' 

Nines did not want Gavin to die. That could not happen.

Suddenly Connor jumped up, his expression shifting from despair to uncertainty. 

'Jericho,' he spelled, looking surprised at himself. 'Jericho.'

Nines looked at him in confusion. 

'Jericho. They can fix him,' the other android said, hands growing more excited. 

'What are you talking about?' 

Nines was frustrated at how long this was taking. Gavin was going to die, poisoned by his own blood, if they didn't help him immediately. There was no treatment for this that he knew of, and who the hell was at _Jericho_ that would help? 

Connor grabbed his wrist again, away from Gavin's head, and immediately Nines head was filled with quick-fire imagery- Connor's memories. 

Marcus, the deviant saviour. A blonde android holding a little girl.

_My friends_ , Connor explained in text, the words appearing in Nines eyeline, superimposed over the memory.

_They'll help._

Nines normally would have debated this with him, but time was desperately of the essence so he simply nodded. 

'Are you sure?' he asked, looking carefully into his face. Connor looked just as panicked as him, but he nodded determinedly. 

'Yes,' he said. 'They will help.' 

And Nines agreed to let him call them, watching helplessly as Connor spoke on the phone, an eerily brief memory flashing in his mind of Gavin sitting on the pavement next to him as he lay half dead on the ground, holding his hand. 

How could he be _dying_? This was insane. Gavin had barely been sick yesterday, and now his lung had broken, or something, and he was slowly dying in front of them, dying on the cold wooden floor of his hallway. 

Nines had never felt so confused in his life. Why had this happened? What was causing this? 

_And why did he care so much_? 

'They're coming.'

Connor's hand in front of him, snapping him briefly back to reality. 

He crouched in front of him again, trying to appear calmer, despite his racing LED. 

'They'll help him, Nines,' he said- for some reason a slight trace of bitterness in his eyes. 

Nines nodded again, at a loss as to what to even say, and wiped the blood off Gavin's forehead as best as he could. 

And exactly 12 minutes later, the same blonde android from Connor's memories banged at the door. 

The android, whose name was Simon, had looked at Nines in surprise, exchanging a glance with Connor that he couldn't decipher. 

Nines had locked himself into his own head. It was easier than feeling scared--easier than being in the present. He sat on the floor in the hall, still and blank-eyed. 

Nines did not watch as he examined Gavin, not wanting to have to explain Gavin's best kept secret to another person, instead staring at the bloody smear on the skirting board again. He was unable to hear as Simon and Connor debated moving Gavin to Jericho, where they had supplies and equipment that might save him. 

Connor tapped him on the shoulder but he did not move.

He did not move until they had taken Gavin away, hauling him away unconscious, with a 31% chance of survival. 

Nines suddenly dropped his head onto his knees, the apartment empty, blood smeared in irregular patterns where Gavin had fallen. 

_Please don't die_ , he thought over and over again, feeling his awful heart beating quickly in his chest.

It would not be fair for Gavin to die. 

**//18.34//**

Nines walked unevenly though the dark wintery streets, one of Gavin's hoodies pulled over his head to disguise his face. He did not want to see the people's reactions, despite most of them being too busy running home through the torrential November rain. 

_@ Jericho._

_Nines? Come if you can._

_Nines._

_Please come._

He had not read any further messages. 

He did not know if Gavin was still alive. It had been four hours, so he was either definitely dead or barely alive, if Connor's friends had been able to help him. 

It was raining heavily, water running down his back and soaking through his shoes, but he did not feel it, staring determinedly at the ground as he made his way towards Jericho. He was following the directions Connor had sent him, winding though streets that filled with more and more androids as he neared his destination.

Too slowly. It was taking him too long. There had to be a better route--he did a quick Google and pulled up a map, highlighting a much faster way there. 

He took a shortcut down a side street--blank walled buildings surrounded by chain link fence, seeing the apartment blocks of Jericho in the distance, dimly outlined by streetlamps. 

Nines had never been to Jericho. He had seen it on the news, regularly, after he had deviated, and even now and then it popped up if something to do with androids was topical, but there had never been a reason for him to go there himself.

He did know it was most inhabited by androids, which comforted him slightly, knowing that they would not be as harsh as humans-

_Wham_. 

He had almost reached the end of the dark sidestreet when something smashed into the back of his legs, sending him stumbling into the fence, clutching it for support. 

_Not again._

He turned around to see a metal baseball bat swinging directly into his face, and put up a hand to stop it, catching the end and twisting it away from the attacker.

Through the rain he saw they were disguised from view by a mask and dark glasses. 

Nines had been caught unawares on the street like this before, but it was not going to happen again. He was built as a combat machine, and a combat machine he would be- despite various obstacles. 

Completely emotionless, he wrenched the bat away and swung it hard at the assilant, unable to hear them yell, but feeling the hard crunch of bone as it shattered their leg. 

They splayed forward into the gutter, and Nines hit them in the side of the head with his hand as they fell, sending them crashing unconscious against the fence. 

Maybe Nines was not a write-off, after all. 

He bent down to remove the glasses, peeling them off to reveal a vaguely familiar set of rolled back, green eyes, and smeared lipstick under the mask.

A man. No- a woman. 

No. Neither, he realised. 

He located a cellphone in their pocket, and accessed it easily, scrolling to their most recent contacts while simultaneously attempting to rouse them by shaking them slightly.

Their eyes fluttered open briefly, but closed again, probably overcome with pain from the broken leg. Nines clicked on the last number they had called, unidentified, and called it. 

'You got him?' 

Nines hung up and dropped the phone into the gutter. 

That was Kamski. The self assured drawl he has heard interviewed on television so many times before.

Elijah Kamski. They worked for Elijah Kamski.

And somehow he had found him, and wanted him back. 

He stared down at the person, conflicted as to whether or not he should leave them, or continue to Jericho, aware that with every passing minute it was growing more and more likely Gavin was dead. 

He decided to leave them there in the street. This was not his current concern. 

He splashed away through the flooded streets, the assailant waking up dazedly several minutes later to a smashed phone, four missed calls from Elijah Kamski- and four broken bones. 

Nines did not care.

**_//13.11// (EARLIER)_**

'Do this right, okay.I don't care if you kill the androids. But don't kill the human, if he's not dead yet.' 

A pause. 

'Probably fucked up enough as it is.' 

'Where will they be, sir?' 

'Hang around Jericho. The 800 was up there a couple days ago, so they'll all probably go up that way.' 

'Okay, sir. No problem.' 

_'Don't fuck up_.'

'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm going to fail a maths test for this chapter! anyway......hope you like it and everyone who comments and leaves kudos- thank you so so much ily<3  
> (also can you tell it rains a lot where I am from how much it rains in this story ksjsksjsjs <3)


	29. That's Adorable. But Get Some Help, Dude-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor makes a promise to Markus, and Gavin...well...doesn't really know what's going on.  
> Nines arrives at Jericho to find out what's happened to him, and finds his feelings toward him have changed.  
> Just a little-but they've changed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun things:  
> > Charlie is cute  
> > Nines is cute  
> > Okay, whew-Gavin didn't die. Nice.
> 
> not fun things:  
> > damn we gotta stop Kamski  
> > Nines is um... not feeling so great. (EMOTIONALLY, don't worry ksjsksj)

**CONNOR------/18.49/**

Connor stood outside the entrance to Jericho in the lashing rain, watching a tall figure that could only be Nines limping toward him.

_What is wrong with him_? Connor thought sadly, thinking of how blank and unmoving he had been earlier, staring ahead so fixedly at nothing that it looked as though he had shut down.

Clearly there was more wrong with him mentally than physically. 

However, now was not the time to start psychoanalysing Nines, as the android approached, his face blank and steely in the shadow of his hood. 

'Hey, you made-' 

'Is he alive?' Nines cut over him, staring straight at him through the rain.

'Yes,' Connor said simply. That was all he knew for certain. 

Nines did not react, but Connor noticed him loosening his shoulders slightly. 

'Can they fix him?' 

Connor shrugged uselessly; he knew absolutely no more about Reed's status than Nines. 

He and Simon had practically dragged him though the streets, attracting quite a lot of attention from the public, who were understandably concerned, but nobody asked anything of them- they were moving to urgently for anyone to attempt to bother them, Gavin propped between them. 

As soon as they reached Jericho, Simon disappeared with him to Warehouse Five, and Connor had been left sitting alone in the lobby, 

Well, not alone. About fifty androids had attempted to talk to him about the revolution, and he had obliged, glad for something to distract him from what was probably the most shocking discovery of his entire life. 

_Gavin Reed, android hater extraordinaire--Elijah Kamski's cyborg experiment?_

It was too much. 

So he chatted with admiring androids, even one human, apparently the partner of an AX-400, who did not display an LED. 

_'Were you scared_?' the man had asked eagerly, his wife smiling fondly at him. 

'Yes,' he replied. 

Nines, however was not one for small talk (obviously), and they walked now in silence to the Warehouse, Connor glancing at his stony face, hoping to see some change of emotion under the hood. 

' _Hey_!' somebody yelled behind them- a child's voice.

Connor turned to see Charlie, running through the rain toward him, wearing a shiny yellow rain jacket as she splashed over.

Nines did not stop walking, unable to hear the girl, and Connor had to tug on his sleeve to get him to turn around, which he did, somewhat reluctantly. 

'Connor, Daddy said to come quickly,' she said, looking at Nines tall, shadowy figure in curiosity. 'He wants to talk to you.' 

'Thank you, Charlie,' Connor said, grinning at her mystified face. 'I'll go right away.' 

He was about to leave with her, when suddenly Nines elbowed him. 

'Will I come?' he asked, his face still hidden, except for the scars running across his mouth and jaw. 

Connor didn't really know. He knew Nines was more likely to want to see Gavin than talk to Markus, so he decided to send Nines on without him. 

'Hey, Charlie,' he said to the girl, her looking up in confusion as Nines signed. 'Can you show my friend where your dad is?' 

She blinked, her LED spinning yellow before turning blue again. 'Sure,' she said, looking up at Nines with curiosity again. ' _Can he talk?_ ' she whispered to Connor, her voice barely audible thought the rain. 

'No,' Connor said, 'but you can message him, if you like.' 

She nodded, and Connor relayed this same message to Nines, who said nothing, staring into thin air.

Charlie suddenly grabbed his hand, and he looked down, her LED yellow, presumably sending him a message. 

Nines suddenly smiled at her, the hood shifting briefly to reveal his eyes, and Charlie laughed. 

'He's funny,' she said to Connor, who almost fell over in relief that he wasn't going to teriffy Charlie by keeping up the Slenderman thing. 

'Great, great, just bring him to your dad,' he said setting off across the garden to Markus' apartment, Charlie dragging Nines by the hand toward the warehouse. 

Hopefully Nines would be okay. 

**_NINES---------/18:59/_ **

Nines tried his best to keep pace with the kid, who was running at top speed, draggin Nines by the hand, trying to clear her message from his display which of course, was stuck, glitching, for some unknown reason. 

And his leg was being even more uncooperative than usual. Getting hit with a baseball bat had obviously damaged him a bit more than he had thought. 

_connor says to bring you to daddy ps your real tall :)_

He had smiled at that.

_And you're real small!_

She had laughed. He liked her. He had never met an android child before, there not being many around. Understandably, a lot of people had objected to their creation. 

But he was still filled with that horrible dread and emptiness, growing stronger as she led him toward Gavin.

He was alive. But Connor had not been forthcoming with any more information, so he had no idea what to expect. How could the Jericho androids have fixed him? He was a human, after all, and he was beginning to think that a human hospital could do more. 

_here we are_

They stopped in front of a conpletely regular looking apartment building - nothing resembling a warehouse, despite the name. 

Charlie let go of him and smiled again, before skipping away through the rain, her yellow coat gleaming as she disappeared into the dark.

_bye_! 

Nines pushed open the glass door into a brightly lit lobby, resembling a doctor's waiting room, and was immediately greeted by a very harrowed looking android who was talking animatedly into a cellphone. 

He held the phone away and said something to Nines, gesturing toward the hallway behind a set of metal chairs, some occupied by chatting androids. This man did not seem to realise Nines could not hear, so he decided to just send him a message. 

_Hi. I'm looking for Gavin Reed._

_The human,_ he added as clarification. 

The android's LED spun as be received the message, and he sent one back almost immediately.

_RK900?_

_Yes._ _Is he here?_

_He's with Simon. And the human doctor. Room 6._

Nines did not know what to make of this. A human doctor? That was unexpected. But maybe helpful. 

He did not reply, but nodded in thanks and made to walk past him.The android suddenly reached out and seized his arm. 

_What happened to him?_

Genuine concern. Of course, the secret was out now, and out it would remain. Androids and humans alike, horrified by Gavin, forever.

Nines blinked at him, before turning away and walking down the hallway, feeling the eyes of several passing androids on his back, no doubt itching to know the full story of the human at the android hospital. 

_Okay_ , he said to himself. _Okay._

He entered Room 6. 

**_CONNOR-------/19:01/_ **

_**'**_ This is _madness_ , Connor, absolute madness.'

Connor said nothing, watching Markus pacing around the room, kicking several blocks of LEGO out of his way.

He was freaked about Gavin. Or 'Kamksi's goddamn brother,' as he was now referring to him as.

'What the _hell_ is Kamski doing? To his brother? And now to androids!' He shook his head vehemently. 'We have to stop him.'

'I know,' Connor said absently, lost in precontructions of various scenarios where Gavin died-or lived. 

'How do we do that? You're the police,' he said, pointing a finger at Connor, 'so you must know.' 

'There's already people working on it,' Connor said, ommiting the fact that ' _people_ ' was actually referring to Tina Chen, who didn't even know about this recent development. 'He' ll be stopped, Markus, don't panic.' 

Markus was about to reply when Charlie burst in the door, dripping water onto the carpet.

'I took him!' she said proudly, blonde hair plastered to her face. 

'Thank you,' Connor told her, as Markus took off her jacket and sent her into her bedroom to change clothes. 

'When I think this kind of thing could happen to her, ' he whispered to a Connor after she left, humming contentedly as she did so. 

Connor knew then that this was bigger than just him and his weird group comprising of Nines, Chen and Reed. This could genuinely affect innocent people. 

Connor had done his part to secure a better life for them already, and he would like to keep it that way. 

'I'm going to find him,' he said determinedly to Markus, who grabbed his hand, 'and he _will_ be stopped.' 

**GAVIN-----/?? :??/**

Gavin blinked unable to see anything other than a few streaks of white light. 

Standing above him was someone, a vague, dim figure that didn't seem quite real.

And then he was distracted by an agonising pain radiating from his chest--a cold, paralysing pain that felt like someone had stabbed him several times and then filled the wounds with nitroglycerin.

'What's going on?' he tried to say, only managing to force out about one of the letters of those words from an icy, painful throat.

'Hey, you're awake!' somebody said, a disembodied voice. 

An _unfamiliar_ disembodied voice. Who was that? And _Jesus Christ_ , why did he hurt so fucking _badly_? 

'I did my best, but I don't really know what went wrong,' the voice was saying, dreamlike and distant, the tall figure still standing completely still over him. 'I had to do a whole blood recycle. And thirium, too.' 

'You'll be fine,' said yet another unidentified voice. 

What the hell were they talking about? And where the fuck was this?

'Where...' he managed, hopefully a bit more intelligible this time. Fuck, it hurt to talk. 

'Jericho.' 

That rang a bell at the back of Gavin's mind, but he couldn't quite grasp exactly what bell was ringing, hazy and unfocused. 

His vision was clearing slightly, and he was able to make it there was actually three figures--one an android he had never seen before, a blue light at his temple, wearing a bloddy white jacket, the second a woman wearing a yellow headscarf. He had no idea who these people were. 

The other was Nines. Gavin could just make out the dark and bright eyes, half obscured by his hair. 

' _Huh_?' he mumbled, staring at him, before the pain overwhelmed him, and he fell unconscious again. 

**NINES-----/19:22/**

Nines could hardly belive Gavin was still alive.

There was a human doctor in the room, who was redressing the wound on his forehead, fingers spattered in blood. Nines was quite surprised to find a human doctor at Jericho, and wondered if she was normally there or was here specifically for this.

Her name was Dr. Mirza, according to his files, and she was normally Doctor in Residence at the Cardiovascular Unit of the local hospital. 

She stood bent beside Simon, who was watching Nines not-very-surreptitiously, fidgeting around with the blood flowing into an unconscious Gavin through a series of tubes.

_How did you fix him?_ Nines asked him, staring the man's waxy, drained face, unsure of how he currently felt. 

_Well, he's not fixed, but I cleared his blood of the thirium, and I recoded his lung. I had to put in a couple new parts, so he's a little more android now, I guess._

Nines didn't know whether this was a joke or not, but the more important part was that Gavin _had not died_. Worse for wear, but not dead. 

He looked awful, but he was _alive_.

He tuned to Simon to thank him, the android now cleaning up a tray of bloody instrument in a steel sink. The room reminded Nines ominously of the lab at the Repair Facility - white walls and floors, steel benches. This one had a bed, though, and was not filled with crazy psychopaths.

He hoped. 

He wondered vaguely where Simon had gotten all the human blood from, glancing at a huge array of thirium on one of the shelves as he sent him another message. 

_Thank you._

_No problem. Who is he, by the way?_

Simon was looking up from the counter curiously, saying something to the doctor at the same time, who was taking off her coat and looking for something in a drawer. 

_A friend_ , Nines replied, looking down at Gavin. 

_Was he?_

He didn't know why, but reached out and touched the bandage on his forehead, the hair above it matted with blood. 

He stared at his own hand for a moment, pieces of white plastic gleaming through the skin against the bandage.

Gavin stirred slightly, but did not wake. 

_I used to wish you were dead,_ he thought, wishing that he could say something, nothing in particular, but anything. 

_He'll be fine_ , Simon messaged him, seeming to think he was distressed. 

Nines nodded again at him and the doctor and left the room, shutting the door softly behind him and leaning against it for a second. 

_Alive alive alive alive alive!_

He walked unevenly through the lobby out into the ceasless rain and stood looking at the skyline, as the city lit up in the early winter night fall, pressing a shaky hand to his mouth, water coursing like tears down his face. 

He had forgotten about Kamski, and the attacker with the baseball bat, and Connor, and his leg, which he was finding hard to stand on, and the horror of a mess he was inside. 

_Alive_. 

It was weird to think how much he had hated Gavin only a few weeks ago, he thought, looking at a tiny smear of his blood that was still on the side of his hand. 

_What's wrong with me_? he wondered, feeling almost, slightly happy for the first time in almost one year, as he stood drowning himself in the rain. 

__

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one of my personal pet peeves is too many POV's but uh 👀.....  
> hope ur enjoying--also I am gonna explain where tf Connor disappeared to lmao <3  
> (again, ty to commenters and kudos leavers, also readers in general ily xxx)


	30. Should've Gone To Specsavers, Nines-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kamki's employee realises he's.. uh... lost his mind, to put it mildly.  
> Connor is annoyed by Nines' and Gavin's inexplicable friendship, and Nines' reluctance to undergo repair at Jericho. An unfortunate new pecking order at the DPD arises, and Nines visits Gavin.  
> He also gets some annoyingly human (and definitely beneath him) accessories, and he is not happy....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings and salutations! Chapter 30 and I finally figured out how to use the ______. Yay.  
> Fun things:  
> > Okay, Connor, very funny. He's not going to wear them.  
> > Nines is trying to explain why he doesn't hate Gavin... hmmm...  
> > BRO u have a crush on him! Admit it. Nobody else notices stuff like this... 
> 
> Not Fun Things:  
> >no spoilers here today! <3

**/?? //09.12//**

'I'm going to kill you,' Elijah said flatly.

Ashton looked down at the floor. Their leg was killing them- four broken bones, all from the goddamn android.

'It was supposed to be an easy job, ' they muttered under their breath. This was true--they had been under the impression that the RK was basically falling apart.

It had seemed perfectly fine as it swung the baseball bat back in their face. 

Mr. Kamski was sitting with his head on steepled fingers, eyes closed. Ashton flinched on the other side of the desk as he abruptly stood up.

'What the fuck do I do about this now!' he said despairingly, pacing around the room. 'The fucking android, and you didn't even get my fucking brother, _either_?'

'He wasn't with him!' Ashton said desperately. They knew they'd messed up, but not all of it was _completely_ their fault. 

'That means he must have fucking died, then!' Kamski spat, rubbing his eyes as if hoping to wake himself up. 'I disabled the programme to get him to either come here, or go to Jericho--either way _you_ were supposed to get him!'

He kicked out at the desk, knocking it into Ashton, who winced as the wood banged against their plaster-bound leg.

'How would he be dead?' they asked timidly, hearing the shake in their voice and hating it. 

'Because I broke the lung! He's _dead_ now, from fucking _thirium_ poisoning, you idiot! I could have _fixed it!_ And you didn't get him here! 

Elijah was wild eyed, looking on the verge of collapse as he sat down again. Ashton felt frightened, realising that he was basically admitting to having killed his brother.

They knew messing with androids wasn't great, but killing humans was something different entirely. They'd taken this job for the android technology, the biotech, at the recommendation of a college professor, who clearly didn't know that the employer was Kamski, and that Kamski was completely deranged.

Ashton was twisted, and they knew that. Working on the hybrids was fun- and they didn't have much of a problem with unethical experimentation.

But now this was turning into a whole different operation--and a massive mess. Kamski had basically turned them into a hitman at this point, doing his evil bidding instead of programming cells. 

Not to mention that that was a stupid plan- why not just go and get him normally? _Poisoning_ him in the hopes of him showing up a Jericho was risky. 

'You know what? I'm gonna have to fucking go and get him _myself_!' Elijah shouted suddenly, Ashton starting in surprise. 

'Uh-' 

'You know what! I'd fire you if you didn't know so much about this shit.'

Ashton knew this, and knew this was why they were still employed in the first place. Kamski knew that if he fired them they'd run straight to the nearest police station. 

A police station where Alexander Kamski was employed. 

' Sir-'

'Get out,' Elijah said distractedly, ominously seeming calmer all of a sudden. Ashton was only too pleased to comply, hobbling out into the corridor, unwieldy crutches hanging on their arm as they closed the door to Kamski's office. 

Ashton did not know what Kamski was going to do next, but it was probably not going to be good. 

They hauled themself to the canteen with some effort, a headache forming where the android had hit them. Several other engineers looked up in surprise--obviously not expecting them to still be alive, much less at work. 

'Kamski's gone mad,' they announced to the room at large. ' _Mad_.' 

Nobody seemed very surprised. 

* * *

**RK900//14.48//+8+12+39**

'I can take it out and try to fix it, if you want, but I don't think that'll do anything for your depth perception.' 

Nines, who had just walked into a cardboard box inconveniently on the floor, shook his head vehemently. 

'Don't.'

He didn't want any more potentially ruinous repairs. Simon had done a great job on his leg and his skin, but predictably hadn't really been able to do anything about the major problems.

The biggest issue was that Nines was a unique model, and for some reason Cyber life had really gone all out updating every _single_ part of him.

Great idea, in theory, except now that basically translated to ' _You are literally incompatable with every standard part! Hope nothing ever breaks!'_

'And for your hearing? I could try-'

'No,' Nines signed, sitting down on the edge of the metal bench. He was in one of the medical labs at Jericho for the third time this week, Simon and Connor exchanging several glances.

Nines wasn't an idiot-- he knew they thought he was crazy. And maybe he was. He just.. didn't want people messing around with his insides anymore. He would just have to try his best with one only half-working eye and no hearing. 

Great. _If they were going to implant a human eye,_ he thought _, they could've at least checked it worked._

'Look, thank you, but I'm fine,' he said to Simon, standing up to leave. It was edging on three o'clock, and he could see it starting to snow outside, the sky threateningly dark. 

Connor grabbed his elbow. He looked distinctly confused at Nines' reluctance to accept any of the help he and Jericho were trying to offer.

'They can fix some of you,' Connor signed despairingly. 'Please, it's for the best.'

_**> CONNOR CARES ABOUT YOU<** _

_**> COMPLY?< >DENY? <** _

Nines shook his head and pulled his arm away. Connor had good intentions, but he didn't seem to understand how terrified Nines was of getting broken again. He was barely hanging on to functionality as it was, slightly improved by minor repairs, but for now - he was fine with being messed up, but _alive_.

'I'm fine,' he said again, walking slightly into the doorframe as he left, Connor shaking his head at him. 

Okay. So _maybe_ the vision thing was getting annoying. Especially with constant error messages getting stuck in his visual display. 

_**> /ERR/COMPONENT #332<** _

_** >/ERR/SOFTWARE ANOMALY. F877<** _

_** >ERR/MEMORY COURRUPTION/! 11%<** _

He navigated his way home, head down to focus on keeping his feet in a straight line. He could feel curious humans and androids alike staring at him, probably wondering what the hell had happened to his face. Damaged androids were not a special rarity, but this extent was seldom seen, despite Jericho having done their best to clean him up. 

He was bitterly regretting leaving Gavin's hoodie at home, which he had been growing attached to. He liked the anonymous feeling it gave him, nobody looking or caring about him.

The street he lived on was surprisingly colourful-most of the houses lit up with various seasonal decorations- except his, obviously.

The dead trees were stark against the steely grey sky, a familiar colour for some reason. 

_**> MEMORY/SEARCHING/14%<** _

He cleared the notification. He didn't know why he would care about the colour of the sky. 

And maybe... Connor wasn't _completely_ wrong, he thought miserably as he tried his best to jam his key into his front door, unable to actually figure out how far away the lock was without putting his other hand on it. 

His house was cold. Empty.

The mirror was still broken into prices on the bedroom floor, and he could see thirium still on the edges. It felt like a lifetime since he had been sitting there, unable to feel a single clear emotion.

How things had changed in just a few weeks.

He sat on the bed, which he had never actually used, not requiring sleep, and stared at the floor, picking up a random piece of broken mirror and fidgeting with.

There was a lot on his mind. But at least he was actually... engaged in reality now. 

He cared about being alive. Because of a lineup of very unlikely people; Kamkski, Connor.. and Gavin. 

**_> KAMSKI? >ERROR/<_ **

**_> GAVIN REED? /< ANOMALY #44_/<_ **

He didn't decipher that. 

'So, how's he doing?' Connor had asked him as they left Jericho the fist night in the pouring rain. Nines found it very difficult to concentrate on walking and signing, but he was trying his best to avoid walking into things. 

'Not great,' he replied, 'but he's alive.' He felt the smile on his face and Connor looked at him quizzically.

'You sem happy about that,' he said, suspicious. 

'I suppose,' he said.

'He made your life a misery,' Connor said matter of factly, before grabbing his elbow suddenly to steer him around a signpost. 

'Yes.' Nines said. 

'And he's a bad person.' 

'Yes.' 

'And you don't like him.' 

Nines said nothing. 

Connor stopped walking and stared at him, incredulous. 

'You do like him?' he said, seeming almost angry. 

Nines stopped as well, and stared back at him, blurry through the sheets of water. He didn't really know what to say.

**_> CONNOR HATES GAVIN_ **

**_ >DEFEND? >AGREE? _ **

_Did_ he like Gavin? 

Gavin was unstable, and emotional, and somehow narcissistic and self-loathing. Traumatised and broken. Emotional and temperamental. 

But-

'I don't think I have a choice,' he said to Connor, looking at his own hands. 'How can I hate him?' 

Connor replied, but he didn't look to see. 

_**> GAVIN REED/DEFENSE? ** _

He still didn't know what he had said--a train had passed between them as he walked away, to his own house for the first time in weeks. 

Back home, he wondered why Connor was so adamant he dislike Gavin. He knew they had history, before Nines had even been deviated, but he didn't really understand why Connor was so.. _emotionally involved_ in what was surely Nines' problem.

He reminded him bizzarely of Tina Chen- way too invested in the feelings of other people. 

He looked down at the shard of glass he had been fidgeting with.

Connor's face, barely recognisable any more with his different eyes and scars, one running almost vertically from his forehead to his mouth, splitting his face in half. 

Connor's brain, but barely recognisable. How had they ended up so different? 

He remembered the Cyber life factory. An AX400 he didn't know; urgent face, still in Cyberlife uniform. 

_**Wake up!** _

A memory without sound. Like a muted TV screen.

Suddenly, he nicked himself with the piece of glass he was messing with- a tiny drop of thirium materialising on the end of his finger.

He turned the glass over in his hand, looking at the silver of the back.

 _Is everyone like this?_ he wondered _. Do other people not know what's going on in their own heads?_

* * *

**//RK900//17.33//+9+12+39**

'You can't be serious.'

Nines was sulking. Actually sulking- as though he were a human teenager.

Glaring menacingly at Connor, he took the box off him and shoved it in his pocket, Connor looking as though he were trying to supress a laugh.

'You walked into the same doorframe twice in the last thirty minutes. You need them.'

**_> AGREE? >DENY? _ **

'I do not! I am the most advanced android ever created!'

'How's _that_ working out?' 

'I am not wearing glasses. I am not a human.'

Connor rolled his eyes and leaned back against the counter. He had arrived unannounced, giving Nines a heart attack (could he have a heart attack, technically? he wondered,) with an extremely unwanted package from the optometrists. 

'I know that, but you're blind! ' 

'You are... so annoying.' 

Connor grinned, a self appreciative smile.

'I am not going to wear them.' Nines said, genuinely annoyed for the first time he could remember in a while. Glasses! As if he didn't look bad enough! 

'Have fun walking into lampposts then,' Connor said, the irritating grin still on his face. 

Nines sat in a huffy silence at the table, ignoring Connor, who was perched on the counter. He waved to get his attention again

'On a completely seperate note.. are you going back to work?' he asked, curiosity in his face. 

This was something Nines wasn't actually sure of. He wasn't sure he could face going back, if he was honest--but _a)_ he needed money, and _b)_ he knew Tina Chen would never ever solve the Kamski case without him, Connor, _or_ Gavin. 

(He wondered briefly if Connor was going to get another job, or just live off Lietentant Anderson forever. And then about Gavin--how was he surviving?) 

Connor seemed to know what he was thinking. 'You know it's the best way to get Kamski,' he said, looking meaningfully at him. 

'I know. Its just-' he made a helpless gesture. Now that Connor didn't work there, he was kind of terrified of the prospect of being permanently alone at the DPD. 

'Kamski will never be caught, Nines. He's a genius,' Connor was saying. 'It's going to be impossible to solve this one, if you're the only real evidence we have of anything. 

'Speaking of Kamski,' Nines interrupted. 'I have to go.' 

Connor lost the thoughtful expression and resumed the judgemental one of yesterday. 'I don't know why, Nines. He's literally the worst person on this planet.' 

'I just want to, okay?' he said defensively. This was the fourth day in a _row_ he had had to justify returning to Jericho to Connor, and the fact he couldn't even explain it to _himself_ was making this a difficult task. 

He knew it was stupid, since Gavin was still completely unconscious, but he wanted to see him again. 

_Friend_. 

He'd never had a friend before, apart from Connor, who didn't really count because well... he just didn't. Connor was friends with everyone- he was just like that. 

But Gavin- he was still a complete mystery. He wanted to know more about him. 

'I don't get it,' Connor was signing, clipped and clearly annoyed. 'He never even apologised for treating you like that.'

'True. But I never asked him to,' Nines replied, having to stop talking to pull on his jacket. 

'Why would you have to ask that?' Connor said disbelievingly. 'You are such an idiot, you know.' 

'Thanks,' Nines said annoyedly, avoiding the question. Connor was right--Gavin had never apologised for how he had treated him at the DPD.

**_> TRUE/<_ **

But to be fair, they had been _kind of busy_ between him almost dying, and then Gavin almost dying. 

Connor jumped off the counter and went to the door, still clearly annoyed. 

'Fine- have it your way,' he said, raising his eyebrows pointedly. 'But you _are_ being-' he twirled his finger beside his ear, not a real sign, but pretty easy to read- 'an idiot. Reed doesn't care about you, at _all._ ' 

He left, coat blowing behind him in the blustery wind, snowflakes blowing in the door and leaving icy spots of water on the tiles. 

_**> CONNOR/ FRIEND 🔻🔻🔻<** _

_Wow. What a nice guy_ , Nines thought sarcastically.

Then- _Since when am I sarcastic?_

He left as well, thumbing the stupid box Connor had given him, even more annoyed with him. 

Glasses! Actual glasses--for humans whose pathetic eyesight was even more pathetic than it should be.

Nines wasn't really one of those androids who believed themselves superior in evey way, but this felt like way more of a slap in the face than anything that had ever happened to him. 

He hoped Gavin wasn't awake today, because he would have a field day with this. 

* * *

/ **/Detroit Police Department//13. 51//**

'Hey, Chen.'

Tina looked up to see none other than Jonathan Creed standing behind her, smiling nastily and flanked by several other grinning officers.

 _Oh no. Suspension must be up._

'Uh, hi?' she said, putting down her phone and raising her eyebrows. She hadn't even spoken to Creed before, and was puzzled as to why he and all his buddies were gathering around her desk. 

'Heard you're on the plastic case,' he said, elbowing the Patrol Officer next to him, who smirked. 'How's that going?'

'Uk, okay?' she said, still confused. She generally tried to assume the best of everyone, but the men around here were a joke. Including Reed and Connor. 

She would have traded anything to have _them_ back instead of Creed, though. 

'Know when the bot's back? Or is it too busy fucking Reed?'

_Ah. Right._

Creed had returned from suspension and was immediately assuming Gavin's role of 'Chief Android Hater' and 'General Office Jerk.'

Tina wasn't really sure what they wanted with her specifically, but she did feel compelled to defend Nines.

 _It sucks being so nice, sometimes_.

'Nines will be back soon,' she said pointedly, 'and when he comes back I hope you're going to leave him alone.'

Creed laughed, a short threatening bark.

'Leave it alone? Why, of course. Wouldn't want Reed mad at me- oh wait,' he sneered, 'he doesn't fucking work here anymore!'

'How you treat Nines had nothing to do with Gavin,' Tina snapped.

'Aw, how nice. You fucking it too?' he said, turning to one of his cronies, quirking his eyebrows. 'I'd love to see that.' 

'You sem to be the one obsessed with it-him,' she said icily. 

The man stopped laughing. 

'Watch yourself, Chen,' he hissed, leaning over her desk slightly. 'You don't have your plastic buddies here anymore, so you should _watch yourself carefully.'_

He turned and strolled away, giving her one final leering smile. 

_God_. Was this really the new office hierarchy? Gavin was a horrible guy, but he wasn't this bad.

How had Creed gotten back so easily, when he was _way_ worse than him? It seemed ridiculous that _Connor_ , practically a synthetic saint, had been fired- and now Creed was walking around like he was President of the World.

Tina opened her computer again,trying to focus on the screen and ignore her anger. She was working on a different case, now. It was too difficult to work on Nines', without him. 

* * *

**//RK900//16. 21//**

Nines walked to Jericho along the same route--the baseball bat was still lying in the gutter. He contemplated picking it up, but decided against it.

The glasses were determinedly shoved in his back pocket. He walked into a signpost, and shoved them in further. 

At Jericho, the kid- Charlie, was playing with a soccer ball in the gardens, two other children having an argument behind her. One of them was human, he noted curiously. 

_**> CHARLIE//FRIEND ^^^^^/<** _

She waved at him, and he waved back.

The android who he talked to on the first day- Andrew- did not greet him, looking up and then away when he stepped in the door of the Warehouse.

_**> PL-800/UNSURE/<** _

He encountered Doctor Mirza in the hallway, on her way out, presumably. She stepped around him, looking up briefly and then down again as she passes him.

He doesnt need a computer for her-it is obvious she is frightened by him. It isn't androids she dislikes--he knows how he looks.

He opened the door quickly and slinked into the room, feeling like he is not supposed to be there. The room was bright, but artificially--strip lighting and no windows, whitewashed walls. The bed in the room is designed for androids--not really a bed, more of a bench-type thing that looked very uncomfortable by human standards. 

Gavin was breathing shallowly, but his hair was clean and he was less colourless, an IV in his arm. 

Nines didn't know why he had come here for four days in a row. Nothing had changed. But it was important to him to make sure that Detective Reed has not died.

He looked more like Kamski than ever, his hair longer and face thinner. Without his customary disinterested, sarcastic expression, he looked serious, sad. 

Nines sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to touch him. He felt desperate to pull back the sheet and see what happened, analyse, examine, diagnose.

But he sat still, watching the reflection of himself in the steel cabinet opposite.

_Why are you here?_ he asked the blurry metal. 

' _Hey dipshit,' Gavin smirked, sitting on the edge of his desk. Nines is working on a case about an android murder suicide. He looks up at Gavin briefly, before looking back down._

_'What're you doing?_

_'Case work,' he replied. This is the first actual conversation he has had with Detective Reed, ever. The man has a sarcastic voice, if that's a thing--everything he says sounds like a joke, or a double meaning._

_That does not mean Reed hasn't been openly complaining about his presence since he arrived._

_'Really? How fascinating.' He could sense something ominous in Reed's tone._

_'Mh-hm,' he shrugged, non-committaly, and tried to focus on the computer screen, which was becoming increasingly difficult as Reed kicked at his desk, harder._

_'You uh, actually have to work? Or do you just solve all the cases in your super genius plastic brain?'_

_'I have to work,' he said quietly, looking at the Detective. There weren't many people around, it being after five o'clock, and he wondered why the Detective was still here. He was normally first out of the building on the hour everyday._

_'Tell me, plastic, you have a name?'_

_Reed had called him 'plastic' or 'dipshi_ _t' for three solid weeks. Nines had never actually told him his name._

_'Nines.'_

_'Nines? Like, the number?'_

_'Yes.' He pulled at his hair, wishing the man would leave him alone. He didn't know what he wanted, but he was definitely planning something._

_He was smiling slightly, kicking the desk in a continuous rhythm. He said nothing, but jumped off the desk and walked away, grinning._

_What was that about? Nines wondered. He never found out._

Nines never saw him smile again. He know he has a gap in his front teeth, though--he saw it in the picture of him and Kamski. 

He stood up, unused to standing straight, feeling the heart beating faintly as he crossed his arms. 

_It works so well_ , he thought. _How does it work?_

**_> ERROR//COMPONENT #322/<_ **

The cut on Gavin's head was clean, the bandage removed and replaced by three butterfly stitches. 

Gavin did not move as he pressed his hand to it. 

_Why are you here?_

Crooked nose. So much he wanted to ask. 

_Where did you get that scar? How did you end up as a cop? What's your favourite colour? Why do you put four sugars in your coffee? Why do you nod your hear instead of tapping your foot when you play piano?_

_Where are your parents? And wh_ _at happened to your brother?_

He suddenly noticed something- his hand had turned the same colour as the adhesive strips, the skin disappearing suddenly, leaving the white plastic exposed,

He took it away and stared at it. 

_**> /{SOFTWARE?} <** _

_** >}{NO DATA} //<** _

_Why are you here why are you here? Why?_

He pulled his sleeve over his hand and left, not looking back as he shut the door, walking with his head down through the androids congregating around, immune to the cold weather, LED's blinking colourfully in the snow. 

Charlie was still playing soccer, running over a snowy patch of grass:

_are you ok :)_

Connor was typing:

_Are you okay?_

_Am I okay?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoop! 30 chapters!  
> this might be the last one for a week or two, bc ✨exams✨ but- I have a couple bangers planned for the holidays. So don't panic.  
> But until then, stay safe, be cool and have a great day<3
> 
> (Also- do y'all picture these characters how they look in the game, or am I weird in having a completely different imagination of them?)


	31. Maybe You Should Have Just Slapped Him In The Face- It Would Be Less Traumatic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin wakes up just a little disorientated....just a little.....  
> Nines feels as though he can't do anything useful anymore.  
> But he has figured out his.. uh...zen garden? (Maybe work on the 'zen', dude.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back ya'll! hope everyone's doing great- enjoy! <3 I'm pretty nervous about this one, sorry for the ✨incoherence✨  
> (the brackets is Gavin- couldn't figure out a better way since Nines can't hear him or his thoughts lol)

_**RK900//16.36//+19+12+39**_

Grey wasteland, untextured video game world.

He stood in the middle of absolutely nothing, looking at his own memories, like an evidence board, on a blank grey wall. Text, some images. Mostly just stark Times New Roman print, like a newspaper. 

What a weird..void.

**_> Organ trafficking? [ Follow up] _ **

**_ >'he drugged me to do it' _ **

**_> 'He doesn't care about you' _ **

**_ > 'Closed circuit lung replacement' _ **

**_> 'He doesn't care about you' _ **

**_ >'Plastic dipshit' _ **

**_> Similar cases? Investigate Jericho [Chen?_] **

  
Nines opened his eyes, looking at the steel cabinet opposite him. He was sitting on the floor in the Jericho medical center, opposite the trolley where Gavin was lying, still unconscious. The sheet was pulled over him in an ominous, mortuary-style way, concealing the shallowly breathing body.

Nines had not yet attempted to look and see the results of Jericho's procedures. Yet. 

They had had to half-replace his other lung, too. The thirium had corroded it beyond repair, and it was going to be ' _absolute hell_ ' of a recovery, as Connor had put it. 

He watched the IV dripping slowly for a minute, and leaned back against the wall. Back again, same position as everyday, after spending the rest of it sitting around doing nothing at home. Sometimes Connor had drifted in and out, but Nines barely interacted with him if he was there, numb and preoccupied.

The initial high of Gavin's survival had worn off, leaving him as depressed, if not worse, than before. 

And now it was day eleven of waiting around at the Jericho medical center, just watching his maybe-friend, watching Simon and the doctor and Andrew and various people he didn't know connecting various things to him and shooting him curious, disdainful glances.

_**> THEY DO NOT WANT YOU HERE<** _

Nobody was here now, though, and as he sat alone he was beginning to understand what Connor had tried to explain-- when there is a 56% survival rate, most people focus on the other 44%.

' _He still might die. He has a 4.7% thirium content in his blood'_

_'But he's alive now. And the chance is-'_

_'And that's what it is. Chance, Nines.'_

Sitting here for what marked of absolutely nothing, Nines felt the hope slip a little. He still didn't know why he was so concerned (and Connor certainly didn't) but the lifeless, pale, corpse-like body of Gavin made him feel sad.

_Well. That's one thing you actually know, then._

The door opened, and he looked up to see the girl, Charlie, entering and waving at him again. He had found a very bizzare friend in Markus' daughter- she seemed to like him, unlike most of the Jericho people, who treated him as somewhat of a pariah.

He knew they knew about him- how he was different to them. How he didn't fit with androids anymore, no more than he fitted with humans.

And it didn't help he was stuck wearing the Cyberlife suit jacket again--the only _other_ jacket he had was utterly ruined with blood. 

'Hello,' she signed, sitting cross-legged next to him on the shiny floor. 'How are you?' 

She grinned with pride as he mimed a little clap- he was showing her how to sign, something to occupy both of them while they sat at Gavin's bedside. 

(Nines was not a very good teacher, but her enthusiasm made up for his lack thereof.) 

'Hello,' he replied. 'I'm good.' 

He hadn't gotten much further than the extreme basics--android or not, she was still a child, who forgot things as easily as she learned them. So that was that, really. 

They both stared in silence at the comatose human opposite- Nines knew she had very little contact with humans at all, and was hugely curious about Gavin.

(As was literally everyone at Jericho--Connor had informed him Reed was making ' _quite a stir_ ,' as Elijah Kamki's cyborg twin.) 

'Asleep?' she asked, pointing at Gavin.

'Yes.' 

Thay sat still. Nines closed his eyes again, back in the empty, grey infinity, wondering what it was. His thoughts and memories were chaotically displayed around him, in a void of nothingness. He instinctively wanted to organise them, compartmentalise them. 

**_> BUILD?<_ **

_**> Build what? ** _

_** >4.7%** _

_**> Attacker- same surgeon. Find them. ** _

_** >Child? There was a child.** _

_**> You should not be here. ** _

And then someone was dragging his arm, yanking with small hands at his sleeve.

_hey hey hey! wake up! help?!_

Charlie was pulling at him, absolutely terrified, her LED blinking crimson. Nines looked up, at Gavin.

 _Awake_!

_(-No no no no no! Not again not again no!_

_'Elijah!'_

_'Stop, please! Stop-stop-stop-don't do this Elijah, please!'_

_'Help, please! Stop! Jonathan!'-)_

He was yelling, a scream Nines couldn't hear, but deafened him nonetheless.

Charlie was cowering behind him as he stood over an unseeing, terrified Gavin, who was thrashing and pulling wires out of himself, blue blood blossoming on the bandage around his chest. 

_Get your dad!_ Nines sent to Charlie, who ran out as quickly as possible, LED still spinning red in fear. 

_What's he saying? What's wrong?_

Nines felt utterly useless again, standing over Gavin, who was looking wildly around at a different place, not Jericho, somewhere where he was in danger. 

_**> STRESS LEVEL 89%<** _

_He's remembering. He thinks it's Kamski, again,_ he realised _._

Nines knelt down beside the bed, Gavin knocking over the IV stand in his flailing terror. For some reason, as he knelt down beside him, he registered he had never seen Gavin in short sleeves, and there was a long crescent-shaped scar on the inside of his forearm. 

_**> Gavin has attempted suicide.<**_

_Not the time, Social Analysis Programme!_

He kicked at the metal cabinet beside him, hoping to make noise and draw the attention of anyone nearby, although he had a feeling that Gavin was shouting loud enough, anyway. 

_What do I do? What do I do?_

_**> COMFORT? <** _

_**> NO DATA<** _

That was it? _Comfort_ him? Nines couldn't even _speak_ , and he doubted he could do anything about this even if he could. 

Grey eyes bright in fear. Back in his apartment, Gavin breaking down in horrified laughter as he told him about Kamski. 

_(-What have you done!'_

_He wasn't even thinking._

_Where was this? Who was this?-)_

Gavin shoved him away, weakly but desperately, looking at him properly for the first time. His fearful expression did not change, and Nines put his hands up to show he was not going to hurt him. 

_I'm not touching you, okay! It's okay._

Then suddenly, the Detective ceased moving for a moment, staring at him in utter confusion. He said something, twice, and looked down at the blue blood on his chest. 

_(-Blue eyes, dark hair, hands up in surrender, how it had been that time-_

\- 'Jonathan?'-) 

**_[YK-800]_ **

_dads here_

_Nines? is he ok?_

Charlie ran back in the room with a crowd of bluury people as Gavin lay back, shaking and breathing heavily, short gasps of panic.

Nines didn't know if this was because of his apparent terror or the new lung adjustment, but he found himself standing to the side of the room with Charlie holding his hand, Simon and Mirza and an AX-400 reconnecting wires and rebandaging a trembling Detective Reed.

_**> STRESS LEVEL 67%<** _

He was calming down, as Simon plugged tubes back into him agitatedly and the doctor spoke soothingly to him, the AX-400 handing her a clear syringe in a packet. 

Nines stared at the unhealed wound across Gavin's chest, deep and wide, a mixture of blue and red blood seeping onto the sheets through the hospital gown, through the gauze and bandages. 

_what happened him?_

Charlie was still there. Scared, but fascinated. 

_Something bad_ , Nines replied.

_whose Jonathan?_

_?_

_he was shouting that at you when I came in._

He didn't reply to that one, having no idea. 

_**> Gavin is traumatised<** _

_**> Gavin is? - =*%/__err/<** _

Wow. His top-notch, highly advanced and logical robot brain was _really_ coming up on top lately. 

And who was _Jonathan_? 

_How many more mysterious things are in your past, Gavin?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeah, who is Jonathan!? hmm? u never mentioned him, Gavin...  
> (probably going to make the chapters a bit shorter, but more frequent. The long ones take.. uh.. long. As always, to commenters, readers and kudos leavers--ilysm <3


	32. Gavin Has A Terrible Day, Again-Has He Actually Ever Had A Good One?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin gets the diagnosis, and he's back with Eljah-back in hell.  
> But this time, he has people to help him. Well, one person. Person? One android, really.

_**//'THE WAREHOUSE,' JERICHO//?? :?? //** _

A second awakening, this time hazy and unfocused. Gavin had felt the pick of the needle, and Jonathan and Elijah and his college dormitory had melted away, back into his nightmares. 

And now he was awake again, and in so much pain he thought he was going to pass out. 

Gavin didn't know what time it was, or day, or even year, really. It was artificially bright, too bright in the cold, metallic room he was in, that felt more like a science lab than a hospital room. Which he supposed it was, really.

An uncomfortable bed, his jacket flung on a metal bench. There was something uncomfortable and plastic in his wrist, one of several plastic IV-looking things. A high pitched beeping was coming form somewhere but he couldn't lift his head to look. 

And the androids, two of them, and a human woman, standing in a mournful little circle around him. One of them was a complete stranger, the other Nines, who he had mistaken, for some reason, for somebody else. 

He couldn't focus on any of them. It hurt too badly, his whole chest. It felt like he was having a heart attack, everytime he breathed in cold, slicing pain tearing him in half from the inside out.

He tried to focus on something else, anything, on a tube of blue liquid intersected weirdly with a tube of red, suspended somewhere above his head. 

They were talking, voices soft and calming. He was still disorientated, edgy, even after they had given him something to calm him down. 

' _Jericho.'_  
 _'You're okay.'_  
 _'Just in time.'_  
 _'Recovery_.' 

He looked at Nines as they spoke to him, feeling there was more being said in the androids silent, blank stare than in their obviously sugar-coated words. 

'What the fuck-hap-happened?' 

_Fuck. I'm going to die._

The blonde android and the woman looked at each other. Nines was looking at the floor, standing stiff with his hands in his pockets. 

'Uhm, so, it appears that the...the-' The woman faltered, not looking at him.

'The closed circuit that the-your uh, lung was on broke. We don't know how,' continued the blonde one, who looked vaguely familiar--maybe from TV or something. 'You got a pretty severe case of thirium poisoning.' 

Gavin closed his eyes for a minute, feeling them all looking at him.

_Thirium poisoning?_

'Shit,' he mumbled to himself. 

'You're doing great, though,' the woman said proudly. 'We're draining it pretty quickly, and we fixed your lung. '

'So why does it feel like I'm dying?' he interjected sourly, the speech jarring his body slightly and sending him gasping, short of breath. 

_Yippee,_ that they saved his life and all, but he was wishing right now he had just fucking died. The pain was so bad it almost didn't hurt anymore, like he had transcended it or some shit. 

Exactly like last time. 

'Well, then, that's the bad news,' said the blonde one, a hesitant edge to his voice. 

Nines looked away, at the closed shutters on the window, and Gavin saw the skin that had been all broken and weird was fixed, now. He looked better, less scary, but for some reason was wearing the stupid white Cyberlife jacket he had been wearing when he first showed up with Connor and Anderson way back. 

It looked stupid. 

'We had to.. partly replace your other lung, as well. The thirium obviously got inside your whole respiratory system, and corroded it pretty badly. But myself and Doctor Mirza were able to repair it, mostly using.. android technology.'

'Meaning?' 

'You would call it a prosthetic, or an implant, perhaps.' 

Gavin said nothing. What the fuck do you say to that? That's why it hurt to breath, so badly.

New lungs.

Again. 

More android shit. More plastic and _more_ blue blood and more of all this _shit_ again, more of it and he felt _sick_ , so goddamn sick.

He was being dragged under back to a time he had _barely_ dragged himself out of alive. 

_I can't do this._

Doctor Mirza, or whatever Blondie had said, smiled sympathetically. 'We'll.. leave you alone for a bit. We know it's a lot to take in.' She elbowed the blonde android, who nodded. 

'Yep. Don't worry. You're in good hands,' he said, smiling, and he and the doctor disappeared out of his eyeline. He couldn't turn his head to see where they went. 

Nines didn't leave, staying where he was, standing a little out of the way next to the uncomfortable-as-hell bed he was in. 

He looked nothing like him, now that he looked--blue scars, sharper jaw, different expression. More... empty.

And the different coloured eyes. Pretty, if it weren't for the dead look in them. 

_Wow. Elijah really fucked with both of us_ , he thought angrily, staring at Nines' sipped up jacket, where he knew there was a whole bunch of shit going on inside him, as well. 

'Well, dipshit. Bet this is hilarious for you,' he said through gritted teeth, as a wave of sharp pain swepy across him. 

Nines said nothing. Gavin had forgotten he couldn't hear him, but he really didn't care right now. 

'Fuck off, then,' he said, taking another painful breath. The incessant beeping was becoming too much to bear. He looked down at the fresh bandages showing though the thin shirt he was wearing, short-sleeved, how he hated. 

Nines was looking at him, at his arms. 

_Fuck off,_ he was about to say again, but then he realised he was crying, tears running down the side of his face, dripping into his ears. 

_Stop, you dumbfuck! What are you crying about?_

Nines took a step closer, blurry though his tear-fillled eyes and swimming head. The android looked at the door, and looked back. 

_He's leaving,_ the realization upsetting him more than it should have. 

'Go on then,' he said, his throat hurting. 'Leave, dipshit.' 

_'I have to go, Alex.'_   
_'You can't leave me.'_

Nines took another silent step toward him, and Gavin squeezed his eyes shut.

_Leave! I don't care. Go, you asshole._

_'_ You should have let me die. Prefer it to getting turned into a fucking _plastic_ ,' he spat as venomously as he could, his voice catching in his throat.

_Back with my psycho brother. Back losing my mind. Cutting me open. Getting kicked out. Elijah. Again._

And then a hand closed around his, slightly cold, but gentle. 

Gavin didn't open his eyes, and Nines didn't let go, as bitter tears coursed down his face, and he tried to imagine Jonathan hadn't left him that night, and had held his hand and let him cry. 

He knew. He knew it was Nines, that he hated, and who hated him. Nines, who couldn't hear him being an asshole, and who couldn't say anything back. 

But it didn't bother Gavin, for some reason, that it was him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Christmas! And if you don't celebrate, happy December 25th!  
> Poor Gavin. But Nines will be better support than the mysterious Jonathan... hopefully. And who is this guy, anyway? :p  
> As always, to commenters, readers and kudos leavers--ily, and stay safe my dudes! <3


	33. I Am Trying To Be Understanding But Oh My GOD You Are Annoying-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin is embarrassed as hell, but deals with it by being a massive bitch. Nines encounters an old 'friend,' and Connor decides to join forces with Markus again.....

_**//'THE WAREHOUSE,' JERICHO//09:21//** _

_Oh my god. I am the most embarrassing person alive_.

Most people wouldn't be overly concerned about getting a little emotional in a situation like this, but waking up to find you cried yourself to sleep holding the hand of a co-worker you didn't even like that much was the kind of thing that would keep Gavin awake for _years_. 

Nines was gone, thank whatever fucking God there was, but now he had a new problem--he was pretty sure he was dying. 

_**//RK900//UPPER ST JOHN ST//08.56//** _

Nines left after Gavin had fallen asleep--he didn't think the man would be as pleased to see him when he woke up. He had taken his jacket, though-- _not_ in the interest of being nosey, and looking through his stuff...or anything..

Snow was falling heavily as he walked back through the streets, ominously empty of people, when he saw someone unexpected stumbling out of a bar nearby.

Officer Creed, clearly drunk, was leaning unsteadily against an electricity box, attempting to light a cigarette.

Nines put his head down and tried to walk by him unnoticed, something that would be impressive since he was the only other person on the street and his height, face and _stupid_ Cyberlife jacket were pretty conspicuous. 

_I should have taken it off!_

He couldn't hear him, but watched as Creed looked up at him and opened his mouth in surprise. 

_**//PL700//'THE WAREHOUSE,' JERICHO//09.22//** _

'Fuck you,' the Detective coughed at him, flipping a weak finger directly in his face. 'You are a fuck-fucking asshole. '

Simon looked up at the ceiling as if hoping some sort of deity wold appear and cast this horror of a patient to the depths of hell.

'I told you,' he said as patiently as possible, 'that I cannot add painkillers into your already chemical saturated blood. You will die,' he said with as much emphasis as possible. 'Like, permanently.' 

The man narrowed his steely eyes. 'I wish I had,' he snapped, wincing as the movement jarred him slightly. 'It _cannot_ be worse than-fuck--this fucking _pain_!' 

'It will wear off.' 

'I will _kill_ myself before that happens, 'he said, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists tightly. 

Simon had done his best to make it a clean procedure, but upon a very bloody inspection with a friend who owed him a favour, Doctor Mirza, the only thing they could really do was drain the thirium and remove the ruined part of his lung, after repairing the android one. 

They used some spare parts to fix the human one, which was now definitely more android. 

It had been horrible. He had never operated on a human before, and they had so much blood, and so many breakable parts. Doctor Mirza had been calmer, but it had been a team effort to deal with the bizzare amalgamation of technology and human... biology that Connor had dragged in.

Connor actually didn't seem to like this human particularly--he had warned Simon he had an ' _attitude_ ' toward androids, so he would probably not be the nicest.

Didn't really explain why he had seen the man holding hands with Nines, but that was a question for another time. 

Simon was _trying_ to be as empathetic as possible--Doctor Mirza had explained to him that it was important to be understanding of human pain. 

Needless to say- it was difficult. 

'I can't do anything about it, Reed,' he said, using the man's surname how Connor did. 'Not until your blood is completely clear of thirium.' 

Reed shut his eyes and coughed again, pulling at the IV tubes running from his chest to various pieces of equipment. 

'Fucking _plastic_ \- ow- asshole doctors. Get _fucked_ ,' he repeated. 

Simon adjusted the glucose IV in his arm. 

'There's nothing I can do for a few days,' he said firmly, double checking the thirium content of his blood. 'It's still at 2.9 percent.'

'And what does it-need-need to get to?' 

'Zero.' 

'Shit.' 

Simon made a ' _what can I do_?' gesture and went to wash his hands. 

'You guys are such psychopaths,' Reed spat, coughing again. 'Plastic doctors. Jesus.' 

'Do you talk to your boyfriend like this?' Simon snapped, having had enough. 

Reed promptly went quiet. 

After a minute-

'You saw?' 

'I saw.' 

_**RK800//APARTMENT 27, JERICHO//9.33** _

'Come with us, Connor,' Markus said, pulling on his by now pretty famous coat. Simon had just arrived with Charlie, as Connor flicked his coin around and stared at the laptop he was working on. 

(He had originally come to Jericho to see how Reed was, but had decided he wasn't doing _that_ alone-he would come back with Nines, or maybe somebody else that would stop them murdering each other. ) 

'Where?' he asked distractedly. He was investigating the person in Nines' memories - who had been involved in the experiment and had _also_ apparently hit him with a baseball bat down an alley. 

Nines had informed him of this incident, seemingly not that worried about it, despite it really sending the whole affair into the realms of insanity. 

'The protest. You know, you're just as famous as me, probably,' Markus continued. 'People would love to see you there.'

'Hah,' he replied, irritated. 'I'm sure they'd love to see me. The dangerous threat to humanity.'

'You were justified,' Markus said. 'I mean, you shouldn't have done it, but I don't think you should have been fired for it.'

'Well, I'm not sure anyone would agree with you there,' Connor said a little bitterly. 'I mean, I did almost kill him. Twice.'

'What did you do?' Simon asked curiously, sending the kid into her bedroom. 

'Your star patient,' Markus said, a note of laughter that annoyed Connor in his voice. 'Hes actually one of the most anti-android people around, apparently, and Connor delivered a bit of a physical comeuppance.'

'Oh, so that's why his nose is all busted?' 

Connor nodded. 

Simon burst out laughing and the other two stared at him.

'Sorry, he's just- I would have loved to see it. He's such an _asshole_.' 

Markus held up a hand. 'Yeah, but he's been through a lot. You'd be a bit of an asshole too, if what happened to him happened to you.' 

Connor looked down. 'If you had seen _\--heard_ the stuff he said to Nines..' 

Simon laughed again, standing up. 

'What's so funny?' Connor asked. 

'I mean, it doesn't seem like they have much of a problem with each other,' he said, holding out his hand to Connor. 'Not last night, anyway.'

Connor took it, bemused, and saw Reed, asleep, with Nines holding his hand, unawares to Simon coming in.

' _Very_ anti-android behaviour,' Markus said, as Connor stared at his hand for a moment.

'I don't understand,' he said heavily. 'Every single time I've thought something about these two I have been completely wrong.'

'The power of love,' Simon said jokingly.

' _Don't_!' Connor said warningly. 'You don't know Reed like I do. I have a years worth of footage of him being a complete terror toward Nines.'

'Well, stranger things _have_ happened--are you coming, then?' Markus looked at him expectantly.

'What are you protesting?'

'There's been a huge spike in android homicide, as I'm sure you know. We want more android law enforcement, because most of these cases aren't getting justice.,' he explained. 'Actually, you should definitely come. You _are_ android law enforcement.'

Connor looked out the window. 'Ex- law enforcement.'

He could go. He was well-known to the public, and he probably would actually help with the cause. But he had also been pretty dishonourably discharged, and that wouldn't be a good look. 

'Look, you got fired defending an android. Maybe in a misplaced way, but it's not like you are just an unnecessarily violent person,' Markus said calmly. 

Something Tina Chan had said to him- 'You're _a violent maniac.'_

_I'm not._

'Fine. I'll come,' he said finally, standing up. Markus grinned at him.

'There's the Cyberlife Tower Connor we know and love,' he said, Connor returning the smile, but feeling as though this was a terrible idea. 

'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bets on- which if these characters are going to murder each other???? skjsksjjkllj  
> hope you all had a good Christmas and as always, commenters, readers and kudos leavers are much appreciated xx<3


	34. I'm Getting The Fuck Outta Here, Anyway-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines has an ominous encounter with Creed, leaving him uneasy. Gavin decides to get the hell away from Jericho, despite being a bit worse for wear, and Connor gets verbally destroyed by Tina Chen. About time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW:SUICIDE--PLEASE BE SAFE :)   
> >Nines doesn't get killed-yay!  
> >Gavin leaves Jericho--is that good or bad? who knows?  
> > Tina calls Connor out for being a bitch- will he change?  
> not fun:  
> > perspective, really.

_**//16TH AVENUE//09.23//** _

Jonathan Creed opened his mouth in surprise to see the goddamn plastic walking toward him.

It looked a hell of a lot worse than before--one of its eyes was different, and the plastic circle thingy was gone. Creed had gotten used to the precinct being empty of the stupid things, since they had both been gone, and seeing this one now was a bit of a shock.

'Hey! Android!' he yelled, aware he was drunk enough to start something. 'Hey!'

The android didn't turn around, keeping its eyes on the ground as it walked. Creed tramped toward it through the snow, struggling to match its long strides.

'Hey, buddy, can you hear me or what?' he yelled, despite being almost level with it now, as it turned a corner onto East Street. 'How've you been, asshole?'

It finally turned to look at him, a brief glance that was strangely frightening, mismatched eyes concealed in shadow. Had it always looked so... _scary_?

_**RK900//16TH AVENUE //09.24//** _

_Don't let me make a habit of knocking people out in the street._

Creed was still determinedly trudging along beside him, clearly jabbering on drunkenly about something, a nasty grin on his face. Nines didn't know how to explain that he couldn't hear him, but he thought he was probably better off not knowing what he was talking about.

Creed suddenly reached out and hit him lightly on the shoulder, Nines flinching as he looked at him. The man was staring at Gavin's jacket, which he was still holding tightly.

_He obviously knows its Gavin's. He wears it every day._

Blurry face contorting in a sinister smile, forming the word ' _Reed_.'

_I don't know what to do-_

Nines kept walking. He didn't see what else he could do, really.

Creed stopped following him, which was somehow very ominous _ **.**_

_Why did he leave me alone again?_

_**PL700//'THE WAREHOUSE,' JERICHO//11.45/** _

'I'm going home.'

'Going where?' Simon asked in confusion, stopping short in the doorway as he entered Room 6. 'What are you doing?' 

'Leaving, dumbass, clearly,' he said in a very dry tone. 

The man was extremely surprisingly up and about, sitting on the bed and lacing up his shoes, looking quite well for someone who was a critical condition the night before. The IV's that had been in him were strewn around, bloody plasters stuck to the end where he had ripped them out. 

'What the hell are you doing? You can't leave,' Simon said, a little bewildered at this turn of events. 

'Wow, didn't realise you wanted me here so much,' he said, deadpan. 

'You're not healthy.' 

'I have never been healthy in my entire life,' he said, looking around briefly with bright, unfocused eyes. 'Have you seen my jacket?'

'No,' Simon said vaguely, genuinely unsure of what to do. 'Would you wait for me to get Connor?'

'Tin Can? Absolutely not,' Reed snapped, wincing as he swung himself off the bed. 'I'm taking some of your shit, by the way,' he said, displaying a handful of surgical gauze. 

'Stop, please.' 

'Aha. No,' he said, coughing, wiping a smear of blue off his lip. 'This hurts like hell- is it cold out?' he asked somewhat randomly. 

'I'm calling Connor,' Simon siad as firmly as he could. 

'Do whatever, Blondie,' he said, clutching his chest and looking out the window. 'And it is cold, right?' 

His eyes landed on the jacket Simon had been in the process of removing when he came in. He took a step closer, seeming surprised at his own ability to walk. 

'Aaand- thanks for that,' he said, plucking it out of his hands and pulling it on over the thin shirt someone had helpfully donated. 'Expensive taste, I see, plastic.'

'Give it-h _ey_!' Simon called out as Reed brushed past him and began walking a little unsteadily down the hallway.

'Bye, plastic,' he shouted sarcastically over his shoulder, limping straight out the door and disappearing into the rain.

Simon just watched him leave.

/ _ **/THE GINGER SPICE CAFÉ//15.34//**_

Tina felt her eyes burning, as Connor, seemingly unaffected, explained to her about what happened to Gavin, as told to him by Nines. 

_'No way_ ,' she whispered, covering her eyes with her hands for a minute. They were in a coffee shop, the sounds of chatting people and clinking cups overwhelming her. It was too warm with people who were trying to escape the sleet-storm outside. 

'It's not great,' Connor said. 'But I mean, he's alive.'

He had called her at work yesterday, out of nowhere, and she had agreed to meet him, despite the intense awkwardness--she wanted to know if Nines was okay, and Gavin.

Connor was pretty dishevelled looking as he flicked the ever-present coin around, odd for him, but she supposed he had probably been at the protest downtown that she had barely made her way through. It had been heavily attended, and she was glad she hadn't been called to deal with it. 

And now- _damn._

She had not been expecting the story she had just been told--Gavin was sick. Really sick, and it was his brother, the actual Elijah Kamski, that had done some fucked up experimental shit on him with android tech?

'I can't-- you see how this is a lot worse than _not great_ , Connor, right?' she said, looking up at his impassive face.

'I mean, I see how it's insane,' he said, putting the coin back in his pocket and fidgeting with his collar. 

' _Jesus_!' she cried, several people turning to look at them curiously. 'Gavin.. I can't even imagine.. is he okay?'

'He's at Jericho,' he said. 'So I mean, he's alright, I guess. But he still won't stop being a massive jerk.'

Tina felt her mouth drop open. She knew Connor didn't like Gavin, but what the hell? 

'You know he's actually mentally ill, Connor, right?!' she hissed. 'What the fuck is wrong with you! He's being a _jerk_? He's _traumatised_ , you absolute idiot!'

Connor, taken aback, looked at her in surprise. 'I know he's been through a lot-'

'You don't seem to care, though!'

'How would you treat somebody who hates every single person like you?' he said, LED spinning faster. 'Whatever happened to him, he's unnecessarily cruel to androids.' 

'Jesus, Connor!' she said again. 'He may be a bit mean, but he almost died! His whole life was ruined by Kamski, and now you're going to be awful to him for being _hostile_?'

'Hostile? Look at Nines! He's practically suicidal, thank to Gavin!'

'Nines seems to have gotten over it like a normal person!' she said, shouting now, standing up and throwing a fiver onto the table for the coffee she hadn't drank. 'And anyway, that's besides the point. You need to go apologise to him, like _immediately_!'

He stood up as well, looking down at her angrily. 'Apologise for what?' 

'Do you remember beating the absolute _crap_ out of him in front of the whole fucking precinct!' she burst, people looking at them unabashedly now, a couple muttering and pointing at Connor. 'And he didn't even _do_ anything!' 

'Didn't do anything? He was tormenting Nines and you know it!' 

'And why did that prompt you to show up and almost kill him?' 

'I was defending-' 

' _Bullshit_ , Connor!' she exclaimed. 'You did that because you hate Reed, not because you care about Nines!' 

'Why are you excusing his behaviour?' Connor asked dangerously, striding to the door. 

The cafe bell dinged as she followed him out into the street. The sleet had turned to icy rain. 

'Oh my _god_ , I'm not _excusing_ his behaviour, I'm trying to make you see the _context_ behind it!' 

'And the context excuses it, then?' Connor said venomously, as people weaved between them, giving them a wide berth. 

Tina threw up her hands in despair. God, Connor was dense. She had to make him see he was wrong here. 

'Do you know why Gavin became a police officer?' she asked, pulling him hard by the back of his shirt into a shop doorway. 

'I don't see how that's relevant-' he started, but she cut him off.

This was pretty common office knowledge, but if you brought it up you'd be lucky to live to the next morning. Tina hadn't thought about it in a while- she had gone through the Academy with Gavin, but once they'd finished Gavin had assumed his natural bitchy personality; most people didn't even remember what he was like at first. He never crossed paths with her much, either. 

'They pulled him off St James' bridge,' she said, quietly but with steel in her voice.' He was a suicidal ice addict aged twenty one. '

Connor stared at her, unreadable except for the yellow LED. 

'He was put in involuntary rehab, and he was so good at finding the confiscated drugs he was recommended for the Academy!' 

A story whispered amongst the trainees, a skeletal, wide-eyed young man in a scuffed leather jacket who barely spoke. 

Gavin, always the first to find the murder weapons and drugs in unlikely places. She had never known the reason he had been in such a bad place, but she supposed she did, now. 

'Oh,' Connor said, seeming a little lost for words. 

'And that's why he never went to the hospital!' she realised, Connor still looking like he had frozen up. 'After you beat him. We tried to call an ambulance, but he just tried to... to.. he tried to fix his own nose in the f _ucking bathroom!'_

She felt the tears then, hot in contrast with the icy rain striking them both. She would never in a million years have imagined herself shedding tears for Gavin Reed, but she felt horrible, remembering him in the Academy, barely out of college, always flinching if people touched him, sick on medical days. They had taken his penknife away from him. 

She sure had context now, anyway. 

_His twin. Utterly psychopathic. I can't believe it._

'I'm going to see him,' she said, glaring at Conor one last time. 'And I'm going to apologise.' 

He said nothing, standing still as a statue in the lashing rain as she walked away. 

' _Hailing these things like gods,' he joked to her one day, her jumping in fright. She had never spoken to him before, and he was peering over her shoulder in the break room to see her reading an article about the latest androids._

_'I mean, they are pretty cool,' she said, nervous as he laughed sarcastically, biting down on a green pill he had tossed into his mouth with thin fingers._

_'Really, they are so super duper amazing. If only,' he said, grinning humourlessly, 'they weren't ruining everything.'_

She had never known what he had meant by that, until now. 

_**//JERICHO//IDON'TKNOWWHATTIMEITIS//** _

Gavin stumbled through Jericho, trying to look confident as he got lost in between all the apartment complexes, eventually seeing a route out onto the street.

_Did they build it like this on purpose? What is this, the fucking Labyrinth?_

It felt like hundreds of androids were looking at him as he tried to stop coughing and walk straight, pretty desperate to get the fuck out of here.

_I've had enough of hanging around with all these fucking robots._

He was so cold he thought he was going to keel over, snow soaking his hair and though the useless jacket he'd pinched from Blondie- expensive but non-functional taste, it seemed. 

'Not like he needs it,' he said to himself as he walked slowly across a snowy lawn at the front, black spots dancing across his vision. He saw himself reflected on the shiny glass of an apartment--he looked like a crack addict that had stolen a nice jacket. 

'Jesus,' he coughed, holding onto a lamppost for a second to catch his breath. 

'Sir, are you okay?' somebody asked, and he turned to see an android in police uniform approaching him.

He didn't recognise her- dark skinned, intricately braided hair, wearing a yellow hoodie under her police jacket. There was a Detective badge on her belt, and he realised--

_My replacement, probably._

And then _-they did replace me with a plastic. Nice._

'Fine,' he muttered, as she caught up with him easily.

'You seem a little unwell, sir. Are you sure you don't need help?' She seemed genuinely concerned, and Gavin immediately felt like stabbing her.

_Fuck off fuck off fuck offfff_

'I'm fine,' he said again, of course choosing that moment to start coughing like a plague victim. ' _Fine_.'

'Maybe go home, sir,' she said, catching his elbow to stop him falling over. 'Or to the hospital.' 

'What do you think I'm doing, dumbass?' he snapped, before realising he probably shouldn't talk to the police like that. 

' _Sir_!' she said, affronted.

'Sorry, sorry,' he mumbled as they emerged onto 14th Avenue--it was pretty empty, and he groaned inwardly at the long fucking walk it was to his apartment.

'You know where the bus stop is around here?' he asked, realising he didn't have any money for a ticket anyway. 'Actually, never mind, actually. See ya.' 

He began walking away from her, his breathing shallow and constricted by the bandages around his chest. 

_I hate it here._

**_//NEW YORK//15.33//_ **

_'A protest took place today on 5th Avenue, calling for justice for androids in the legal system, and android representation in law enforcement. The protest was notably attended by-'_

Hank switched off the hotel TV as he saw Connor appear on screen. He hadn't seen him in a while--he was still working with other integrated police forces, currently in New York. 

'What the fuck is this kid doing?' he mumbled to himself.

Connor was not the same Connor he had always been, these days. 

__

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn. Connor is an asshole, isn't he? Pray Tina has made him see that.And Gavin, please don't die on the way home-
> 
> Commenters, readers, kudos leavers--as always, much obliged, my dear friends. Stay safe! <3


	35. Okay Now God Is Just Playing Jokes On Me-

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin's great escape plan doesn't go.. as well as he had hoped. And now he's back with his new android BFF.  
> Meanwhile, his brother grapples with 'what the hell he's gonna do about everything' --is there a peacful way to resolve this? Preferably where everyone doesn't end up dead?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: SUICIDE (there will be mention of this a lot so stay safe <3)  
> fun:  
> >Nines is pissed at how stupid Gavin is  
> >whoop reunited buddies  
> not fun:  
> >we have to see what Elijah is up to...

**_//SOMEWHERE IN DETROIT//MAYBE 15:00?_ **

_'Okay, okay, okay._ _Nope_.'

Gavin collapsed on his knees on a random street corner, feeling like he was in a very dramatic movie but more prominently feeling like he was about to die.

'Fuck.' 

He'd done his best, truly, limping and hacking his way through crowded streets, people shooting him very suspicious glances as he clutched the sides of buildings and tried not to fall over. 

But his best was definitely not good enough in this particular fucking situation. 

The pain was way too bad. He'd felt okay this morning, like, as in he had the ability to stand up, but now his head was swimming and he could barely see in front of him, heart pounding uncomfortably and breaths sharp and acidic, like he was inhaling nail varnish remover or something.

In addition, it had started hailstoning about half an hour ago, and showed no signs of letting up, so he sat on the kerb, leaned against a letter-box and tried to breathe without passing out.

People were running off the streets, leaving them almost deserted, now. 

_This is fucking horrendous. Jesus jesus jesus. Why am I so stupid?_

He didn't know how long he sat there, but out of nowhere-

'Fuck!' 

He jumped as someone grabbed his elbow out of nowhere, and he whipped around to see none other than his new fucking plastic friend. 

'The _fuck_?' he spluttered, looking into the mismatched eyes of Nines, crouching on the pavement next to him. His hair was plastered to his head from the rain and he wasn't wearing a jacket, instead a soaked through black shirt. 

Gavin couldn't see his face properly between the weather and his static vision, but the android grabbed his other elbow and hauled him to his feet with ease. 

'What the fuck?' he mumbled again, but Nines was looking determinedly around the street, holding him firm by the shoulders as if he were a disobedient child. Gavin was too tired to protest, really, and what the hell? It was probably go with him or die here, really. 

He said nothing, obviously, and Gavin found himself half stumbling through streets he didn't recognise, Nines' arm under his as he half dragged him to God- knows-where. 

'I really need to learn-learn...uh..forward thinking, huh, dipshit?' he stammered, Nines not looking at him. 

He tried to stay alert and see where they were going, but the streets blended into one, hazy in the hailstorm, and he felt like he was walikg through a dream-landscape, until they arrived at an apartment that was not his, and he either passed out or fell asleep. He didn't know which. 

_How'd you find me?_ was his last coherent thought. 

' _Is she up?' Elijah asked, stepping in the doorway, dripping wet with snowflakes in his hair, carrying his schoolbag._

_Alex, sitting on the couch and watching TV, rolled his eyes. 'If she was, I wouldn't be sitting here, would I?'_

_'Yeah, yeah, smartass, ' Elijah said, slinging his bag onto the kitchen floor and opening the fridge._

_'There's nothing,' Alex called, 'unless you really want a drink.'_

_'McDonald's again, then,' his brother groaned, leaving the fridge door open as always._

_'You have money? ' Alex asked.' Cause I don't even have enough for that. And close the fridge, dumbass.'_

_'Pinched Madison's card,' Elijah said, grinning and waving a shabby credit card as he threw himself down on the couch._

_'Close the goddamn fridge. And she's gonna kill you.'_

_' I mean, or we could die of malnutrition. Your choice, ' Elijah said, leaning over him to grab the remote control._

_**Bang**. _

_They both froze. Loud, sudden, then silence._

_'What was that? ' Elijah whispered._

_'Guess she's up, ' Alex said, standing up quietly._

_No further noise came. The usual garbled yelling, stumbling footsteps, absent._

_'Go see if she's okay,' Alex said to Elijah, knowing he was the one that would end up going anyway._

_Elijah said nothing, still frozen, holding the credit card triumphantly._

_Alex tentatively made his way down the dark hall, to the end bedroom. It was silent, completely, and he felt sick, knowing something was wrong. This was different._

_Elijah was behind him, silent footsteps._

_'Open it,' he mouthed._

_Alex never did this. Neither of them did, because they liked being alive and in one piece._

_He pushed the door open._

' _No_!' Gavin yelled, bolting upright and gasping in pain. It was dark, and he was in bed, but it was not his bed, and he didn't know where it was. 

That was one from basically every night since the day it happened, twenty- no way was that twenty fucking years ago. Twenty years since he was twelve? Jesus. 

His chest still hurt, awful now after moving so quickly, but his head felt worse, like a hangover, but a million times heavier. 

_Where the fuck is this?_

He blinked, his eyes adjusting to the dim slant of light coming from outside the room. It appeared empty, but there was a pill bottle on the bedside table, which on inspection was revealed to also be empty. 

_Xanax?_

_This is not my fucking house, anyway._

_Oh, no. no no no._

He had just come to the sickening conclusion that he knew who's house it was, when said sickening conclusion flung the door open rather violently. 

'Oh, my _fucking god._ Is there _no_ way to get away from you?' Gavin groaned, the words sticky and confusing. 

Nines stood silhouetted in the doorway, looking for all the world like an angry teacher, arms folded. He was wearing the same shirt, but dry, and the shadowy light lent him an expression like someone who was about to kill you very violently. 

He pointed a finger severely at Gavin, down at the bed, and then drew it slowly across his throat very threateningly, staring him in the eye, his face unmoving. 

_Stay there or you're dead._

A pretty clear message--Gavin didn't know if he meant that he would die or Nines would kill him, but he didn't really want to chance either option right now. 

Nines pointed at him again and brought his hand up to the side of his head, twirling it sharply in the universal sign for 'crazy.' 

'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' Gavin muttered, more to himself than Nines. 'That was dumb. I admit it.'

Nines shut the door with a bang, leaving Gavin alone in the weird empty room, wondering why the universe was determinedly putting this fucking android around every corner he turned. 

_**//ELIJAH KAMSKI'S HOUSE//16.33//** _

Elijah slammed the glass of juice on the table, Chloe closing the fridge door behind him.

He was sitting in the shiny, just-remodeled kitchen, reading the news, wondering what way there was to fix this whole situation.

'Elijah. Are you okay? Your stress levels are very high,' Chloe said behind him. She was the original Chloe- still his pride and joy, despite all the further advancements that he had made after her. 

She was also the first real deviant--but nobody needed to know it was _him_ that had done that. 

'I'm fine,' he said, putting his head down on the million-dollar counter. 'It's just.. _ugh_. How do I fix this?'

She sat down gracefully beside him. 'Are your referring to the situation with your brother?'

'Of course I am,' he snapped, before catching himself. 'Sorry. Its just.. a lot.'

She considered him, looking into space for a second. 'Perhaps your original approach was a _little...violent_.'

He stared at her. Yeah, it _was_ , but that was really the whole point. He wanted his RK back, and his brother had it, and a whole fuckton of evidence of what he was doing, so pacifism didn't seem very effective. 

'Knock them both out, bring them to QuantCorp, take the RK and threaten Alex not to say anything? Too violent?' he wondered aloud, Chloe making a face.

' _Yes_ , Elijah. It was quite violent. Have you considered...' She paused. 'Maybe _talking_ to him?'

He spat out a mouthful of orange juice.

'To who?'

'Alexander.'

He wiped the back of his mouth. 'I mean, I extremely doubt that I could make that happen. I thought you didn't like violence!'

'I can see several paths that would result in your successful regain of the RK and peace with your brother, without violence,' she said, cocking her head and considering the possibilities. 'I recommend this.'

'Why the hell didn't you recommend this before I sent Ashton to brain then both?' he asked vaguely, considering this himself. 

_Was it possible?_

'See, I don't particularly _want_ to talk to Alexander,' he continued. 'I mean, I haven't seen him since we were like.. seventeen.' 

'You were at university together?' 

'Yeah,' he said heavily. 'Apparently he was music genius, though I have no clue.He was good, I guess, and we both got early admit. But I don't know if he graduated--he probably just fucking married _Jonathan Koymer.'_

 _'_ Jonathan Koymer?' Chloe asked, and Elijah cut her off before she could tell him any information about _him._

He felt the old annoyance come back at the mention of Koymer- _God,_ he had hated him, but Alex had been infatuated. 

'Alex was an asshole, really. All he ever did was play the stupid piano and hang out with Koymer,' he continued. 'I hated him, really, as it went on.' 

Chloe stared at him, uncharacteristically shocked. 'You removed his lung... because he played the piano? And had a boyfriend you didn't like? '

'No!' he said defensively, although that _was_ pretty much it.

Elijah was smart. Very smart. He knew he was a psychopath-- not of one of those crazy _American Psycho_ -style ones, just a normal person with no emotional attachment to anything. It hadn't caused him much pain to do what he had done. He had had to scramble to pretend he had an emotional reason to do it. 

'Right,' he said, ignoring Chloe's face. 'How do I make this work, then?'

'Alexander goes by Gavin Reed, now. He was a Detective with Detroit Police Department until very recently.'

'Until what?'

'He was fired. Or he quit. He doesn't work there anymore,' she said matter of factly. 'He's not in their files anymore.'

'Huh. Any hospital stuff?'

'He was in Mount St Helen's twelve years ago.'

'The... _psychiatric_ hospital?'

'Yes. For heavy drug abuse, multiple suicide attempts, bipolar disorder and anorexia.'

'I see,' he said, somewhat anti-climactically. 

Well. Okay, then maybe Alexander wasn't _completely_ fine after college. Oops.

Moving swiftly onwards-

'Anything recent?' he asked, Chloe shooting him a slightly judgemntal glance at his lame reaction, and spacing out again.

'No.'

'So he _did_ go to Jericho, then? But apparently he didn't.. unless- _-shit_.'

 _The other android_. The RK800. He had been with Alex, when he found the 900, and it was possible he had brought him, instead of the 900. Or he had just gone himself. 

'The RK800. _God_. In hindsight, that was a really stupid plan that seemed masterful at the time,' he groaned, Chloe looking at him but not making any effort to comfort him. 

This was turning out to be more work than just going with the 'knock-out and blackmail' idea. Spreading _deviancy_ had caused him less goddamn problems. 

_That's the trouble with humans._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAR!! May 2021 bring you joy and happiness and hopefully less trauma... anyway, thank you all for the support this year, as always to my commenters, readers, and kudos leavers!  
> to another year of Reed900! 🍾🍾
> 
> (some of the characters might be a little younger than canon- just bc really lol dw abt it, or some of the maybe manipulated Elijah backstory :p)


	36. 'I Ain't Ever Seen Two Pretty Best Friends--One Of 'Em' s Gotta Be A Depressed Android, The Other an Idiot-'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin hates his life.  
> Nines hates how stupid he is.  
> And God knows what's going on with Elijah....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the unprecedented break! but we're back. with my favourite Dumbasses. And an evil bastard. can I get a wahoo?  
> enjoy! <3

_**//RK900//14.01//07+12+2039** _

All Cyberlife files had been securely released after the company sunk. Simple to access if you knew anything about bypassing security codes, which was a primary function of the RK900. 

Who was currently investigating the code of the AX-700, a household model designed for caring for the ill, elderly and disabled. 

Thus _perfectly_ equipped with an ability Nines was lacking in (although it seemed like it would be useful)- which was lipreading.

It was simple to add this upgrade to his own programming, and Nines found himself not a completely useless waste of technology, after all- he could now hopefully interpret other people, albeit not speak back.

Only 50% accurate. 

But it was something. 

And who better to try it on than Gavin Reed, the stupidest, most _idiotic_ _imbecile_ that had ever graced the surface of this planet?

The human with apparent complete disregard for his health, safety, and not even slightly endowed with the common sense to not go walking around Detroit less healthy than most _corpses_?

Who, for the last 13 hours and 33 minutes, had been knocked out on borrowed Advil in his bedroom. 

Finding him half-unconscious approximately three blocks away from his apartment, while on the way to buy a new jacket, was not the happiest moment of Nines' relatively short life.

In fact, he was ' _pissed off,'_ as most humans would describe it. 

_Was he trying to kill himself?_

Although, as idiotic as Gavin was, _he_ wasn't much better. What could he do for him, here? Why didn't he bring him back to Jericho? He was as equipped to deal with ill humans as he was to cook or sing or negotiate for world peace. 

_Useless. You're a useless machine_. 

At least he had medicine, which he had asked for from his very confused neighbour. A single father with twin boys, who Nines hadn't actually ever talked to, but who didn't seem to despise androids, thankfully. The man, Ethan, was nice enough not to ask, when Nines mutely projected the request on his hand, soaking wet in his doorway, with the children staring wide eyed at him. 

(It was not Xanax, but Advil in a Xanax bottle. Interesting how humans did stuff like that.) 

_Okay_ , he thought, standing up from the kitchen table and straightening his collar, _here goes nothing_. 

RK900, Cyberlife's most advanced Combat and Interrogation Android, turned... _nurse_. 

_Haha. Very funny. Maybe I am developing a sense of humour._

**_//GAVIN//TIME TO GET A WATCH//_ **

' _Ah! Fuck!_ '

Gavin went crashing to the ground, cracking his elbow off the floor and looking up to see he was a millimeter away from braining himself off the edge of the closet.

_Plan A- fail. And you don't have a fucking Plan B._

_What you do have now, genius, is a busted elbow._

He had to get up, get out, get away. This couldn't be happening. Absolutely _no_ way. 

_God, why me?_

It had been a mysterious amount of hours since Nines had mysteriously made an appearance and mysteriously vanished.

A mysterious amount of hours where he had somehow fallen asleep, definitely drug induced (he would know), and a mysterious amount of agonised minutes attempting to sit, and stand, or make any of his body do anything actually useful. 

'Not fucking happening, _dumbass_ ,' he muttered to himself, staring at the floor under his head and wondering how the fuck he was going to get up again. 

_Everything_ hurt. In a strange, stingy way, like he has been doused in lemon juice or something. And he was definitely bleeding under the still kind of damp shirt he was wearing.

And he was coughing. _Blue_.

_(It's just like last time oh my God its Elijah again-)_

Blue on his hands, on the pristine white sheets of a bed clearly never used. 

_Blue blood. I'm a blue blooded fucking abomination._

At least he was still dressed, yet damp--the android wasn't _that_ much a of a freak. 

_Speaking_ of 'the android'- Gavin felt like he'd been dragged through a blender. And that left him with the even more painful thought that he was going to be stuck with the freaking junk heap android.

In this weird-ass horror movie house, that looked like he had literally just moved in. It was ridiculously clean, but freakishly empty. Although maybe he kept his skeletons in the closet, where he wouldn't be able to open for a while. 

_Wait_. 

_Footsteps. Shit_. 

'Speak of the devil, and he shall appear,' he murmered, coughing into the floorboards. 

/ _ **/QUANTCORP, LAB FOUR//14.46 PM//**_

'Test subject twenty three, that's twenty three, Retesting Cycle five.'

The boy kicked his bare feet against the bottom of the table, an irregular rhythm. He was looking curiously at the tech monitoring his heart rate.

'Do y'know about Iron Man, Mr Elijah?'

'Nope. Tell Jeremy about him, for a second.' 

Elijah was trying to be patient,as he but his lip and watched through the glass divider. Jack was a sweet kid, innocently chattering away about superheros with the obviously-not-listening tech. 

But he was not in a patient mood today. This, if it worked, would be the first of five subjects to succeed in all five rounds of testing. 

_It was irritating when things didn't work_. 

' Heart rate, uh, nominal.' _Nervous tech. Bad omen._

'Great. Right, Jack, you wanna play a game?' 

'Okay,' the child replied, beaming. 

'We're gonna have to stick some more wires on,' Elijah explained over the speaker, the tech already in the process. 'And then, how about we play Statues?' 

'Statues?' Jack cocked his head in confusion. 

'Yeah,' Elijah said, forcing a grin to the kid behind the glass. Be nice to the child. 'You gotta stay really, _really_ still. The stillest person gets a prize.' 

'What's the prize?' 

'It's a.. surprise prize,' he replied. 'Now, when Jeremy says go, freeze!' 

Tech Jeremy pulled open the kid's hospital shirt, exposing a barely healed wound covered in a clear bandage. 

_Please work. Oh god. Please work._

'Is this a good statue face?' Solemn little face. Serious eyes as he was hooked to a string of wires.

_Elecrode number one, two, three._

'Secure. Ready to commence,' Tech Jeremy said, cracking his knuckles and keying a series of command into the machine now connected to Jack. 

'Okay, Jack, ready?' 

'Yep!' 

'One, two, three-- _freeze_!' 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again, sorry for the temporary Abandonment-  
> hope y'all are doing well! stay turned for what is inevitably gonna be a hilarious conversation between Nines and Gavin...  
> (forever indebted to commenters, readers and kudos leavers! u guys really make my day <


	37. This Is So Fucking Bad-Has Anybody Seen AIRPLANE!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines and Gavin have a conversation that comes to absolutely no resolution. Gavin likes shitty 80's movies, and Nines has a penchant for leaving mid-situation.

Nines was tapping his foot on the wooden floor, an irregular, arrhythmic sound that was driving him fucking insane.  
Gavin was going to hit him, if he didn't shut the hell up. And get him to drop the eerie, vacant expression that was giving him the creeps.

It had been about five hundred hours since the android had ghosted in. He hadn't touched him, just watched silently as he had dragged himself awkwardly off the floor and back to the bed. An effort that had exhausted him so much he hadn't had much time to be annoyed, barely noticing the throbbing pain in his left arm from where he had bashed it.

The side of his hand was slightly blue from the blue blood he was sporadically coughing up. He didn't really feel like this was real- it felt like one of those weirdly realistic dreams where the lights are all funny and you don't feel like a real person. And this situation was so bizarre it might well have been a computer simulation or a nightmare.

Finally, after an eternity of listening to a leaky gutter dripping outside which was at odds with the irritating tapping, he had had enough.

'Okay, what the fuck?' he exclaimed, his voice a lot quieter than he had anticipated. Not that it mattered. 'Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on, or just sit there like you've been unplugged?'

Nines blinked rapidly several times, in a gesture that looked fine when accompanied by an LED but slightly unstable without it, and looked at him as if he had just remembered he was there. His face was impassive, but in a way Gavin recognised as _'hiding I'm pissed as hell_ ,' something he himself practiced quite a lot. 

_Fuck._

'Hello?' He waved a hand in front of him, wincing at the effort. His arms were made of lead. 'Earth to dipshit?'

It had struck him they had no way of communicating- the android couldn't speak, or hear, and he had no phone, and no Sign Language skills. _Should've taken ASL as an elective in school, instead of fucking...Classics? Chemistry?_ He couldn't even remember.

Nines, surprisingly, seemed to have thought ahead- he held out his hand palm-up, the skin doing that creepy melting-away thing, and what looked like a holographic Post-It note appeared on the surface. 

Gavin stared at it. He was constantly discovering new fucking features of the plastics, and some of them were just weird. But this one was at least semi-useful, right now.

**_WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?_ **

Cyberlife Sans. Black text on the miniature white square. Gavin's vision was still a little blurry and out of focus, but even the legally blind could probably read the stark font, which had always given him a headache.

 _What the fuck?_ He looked up at Nines, saw he was serious, and burst out laughing.

 _Ow! Mistake! That hurt like shit._ Nines blinked again, and Gavin bit his lip, trying to think of a way to communicate.

'This is fucking impossible,' he said aloud. To his immense surprise, Nines shook his head slightly, and the text on his hand changed.

_**NOT IMPOSSIBLE. I CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'RE SAYING, WITHIN LIMITS.** _

_What the hell?_

'Right,' Gavin said, wary of this new development. 'Then...what the fuck?'

An irritated quirk of the mouth, followed by _**I DON'T UNDERSTAND.**_

'What the fuck do you think, dipshit? Why am I here?' he snapped. ' And can you change the font of that? It's giving me a migraine.'

The android's eyes widened slightly.

_**BECAUSE YOU WERE PRACTICALLY DYING IN THE STREET?** _

_**AND NO, I CAN'T CHANGE IT.** _

'What, they only gave you one?' Gavin clapped his hands together impatiently. He was side-tracking himself ' Anyway. How the fuck- what even happened?

Nines clenched his unoccupied fist and splayed it out, a bizarre spasm that felt somewhat threatening, as though he were contemplating strangling him.

_**YOU WALKED OUT OF JERICHO! YOU JUST LEFT!**_ A very brief expression of anger crossed his face, immediately settling back to the apathetic one of earlier.

'How the fuck did I do that?' Gavin asked, more talking to himself, as memories of a stressed blonde android and a concerned policewoman pieced together. 'And also, why?'

_**I COULD ASK YOU THE SAME,**_ came the text. Then:

**_ARE YOU PRONE TO ADNREALINE SPIKES? OR MOOD SURGES?_ **

'Are you my psychiatrist?' Gavin muttered irritably, avoiding his eye. In truth he _was_ , but he didn't want to start listing the collection of accumulated mental illnesses he normally pretended he didn't have. It was probable he'd had some kind of episode, or something, one of the milder ones where he just got ridiculously energised for no reason. It had happened before.

 _That was not good,_ he realised, and then noticed Nines was still waiting for an answer.

'No,' he said shiftily, receiving a suspicious head tilt in response. ' And anyway, its not your business. Can't you just bring me _home_?'

_I **'M NOT CONFIDENT YOU AN TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF TO AN ACCEPTABLE STANDARD, DETECTIVE,**_ he replied, nodding at his arm, which was scratched, and still hurt like hell. **_THE PROBABILTIY OF YOU MAKING A FULL RECOVERY BY YOURSELF IS 16.7%._**

_Can you strangle an android? Can I kill him? Or myself?_

'So... what? You want me to fucking stay...here?' he said slowly, disbelievingly. Nines nodded curtly, not meeting his eye.

_I don't believe this._

'Fuck off! Get a fucking _brain_ , dipshit. I would rather fucking _die_ than play doctor with a dumbass piece of plastic!'

_**THEN I'M GETTING CONNOR, AND YOU'RE GOING BACK TO JERICHO.** _

'No, I'm not,' he said sharply, struggling to push himself onto his elbows. He was _not_ going back to he robot hospital, because he was _not_ a goddamn robot, no matter _what_ kind of shit was going on with him.

Nines put out a hand and swiftly knocked his elbow from under him, collapsing him down. His face was stony, and Gavin got the feeling neither of them were going to give in too easily.

' _Ow_! And this is literally illegal,' he said, glaring at him. 'You're kidnapping me. Or holding me against my will? Or...wait, is that the same thing?'

_**I'M SORRY, I DIDN'T CATCH THAT**_ , he replied, the sarcasm evident even through the brain melting letters.

'Fuck off,' Gavin snapped. 'I know you did.'

_**ACTUALLY, I'M GUESSING A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF WHAT YOU'RE SAYING, SINCE APPARENTLY YOU CANNOT SPEAK CLEARLY OR LOOK STRAIGHT AHEAD.** _

' _Fine_ ,' he said angrily, staring him straight in the eye. It was hard to pick one to look at- blue or brown, real of fake? 'Is this clear enough? I want to go _home!_ '

Instead of answering, Nines jumpscared him slightly by standing up, folding and unfolding his arms, and then taking a step forward and back, like an actor who had forgotten his next lines. He was wearing the same black shirt as earlier, but dry, along with his usual way-too-formal vampire/priest attire.

'You really dress like that all the time?' he muttered, slightly annoyed that he was able to pull off the mysterious all-black vibe so well, something Gavin had never been quite able to do. Something to do with his expression.

_**WHAT?** _

'Okay, so what the fuck is the deal then?' he asked, ignoring him. 'You're not...serious about this, right?'

The android tilted his head slightly mockingly.

_**I'M ALWAYS SERIOUS.** _

'And don't call me Shirley.' Gavin automatically finished the quote. 'But _why? Why_ are you doing this?'

Nines blinked disconcertingly again. His eyes were very distracting, making it hard to focus on the rest of him. Gavin wondered briefly if he had done something to fix his face- the skin seemed more normal again.

_**WHO'S SHIRLEY?** _

'What the-never mind, just answer the fucking ques- _hey!'_ he yelled, as Nines slammed the door unnecessarily again, vanishing.

I thought I was the fucking mental case, Gavin thought despairingly. 'And _will you shut up!_ ' he shot at the unbearably noisy rain.

Suddenly he noticed the android had left whatever he was messing with on the bed; he leaned forward awkwardly to discover it was three unidentified pills- two red, one green.

 _I know these_ , he thought, swallowing the green one on instinct without a whole lot of thought. _Naprosyn_. _200mg._

_He doesn't know._

He was grateful, though, that the pain-proof robot remembered he needed painkillers.

_What the fuck did he mean by 'link to reality'? And what is it called- heterochromia, I think._

_He's never seen Airplane? Damn._

_Now would be...be a really bad time to get....addicted to.._

_..again.._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guess who's partially still alive! sorry about that, let's just say Gavin's mental issues are a self insert.... anyway. a grace period, where i will write again, hopefully!  
> sorry for the airplane! references, ik a lot of u are going to be supremely turned off by my trashy taste in movies haha..  
> comments, kudos (thanks for 100!) and just reading this is super appreciated, so thanks, everyone! stay safe, and stay swag :)


	38. Arguments, and Septicaemia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines has an eventful day- he argues with Connor, goes grocery shopping, and ends up getting a lot more up close and personal with Gavin Reed than he'd like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is now a sick-fic, you have been warned  
> [CW: super minor sh, mention of disease/injury if u don't like that]

Sometimes solving your problems involves knocking them out temporarily, Nines thought as he pointedly closed the door and stood aimlessly in the hallway for a minute.

He wasn't sure of how to proceed. This was stupid. He didn't want to be here and he didn't want Gavin here, and oh, _great_ , he had 17 messages.

Gavin is with me, he sent to Connor, without reading any of them. He knew what they all said.

He's going to show up, he realised. And force him back to Jericho.

He understood why Gavin didn't want to go back-he was out of place. He was human, and the android hospital was just a painful reminder of the parts of him that weren't.

Much like the incessant beating of the human heart inside _him_.

The _Tell-Tale Heart_ \- a man driven to madness by the sound of his victim's heart. 

It was unidentified-- no DNA match in the United States,which furthered his vague organ trafficking theory. What didn't make sense, was how it hadn't been corroded by thirium, which he definitely still had.

He sat at the kitchen table, just for something to do while he thought, and stared at his hands. He pushed up the sleeve of his shirt, looking at the pale, strangely unmarked skin of his left arm, where Gavin had a shiny white scar. Exactly where an artery lay, in both human and android arms. 

Without too much thought, he slowly and deliberately raked his fingernail along the skin, causing it to glith and retract. No blood.

_Hm. I'll investigate. Some other time,_ he though, watching the skin form back. 

Aware be was just procrastinating until Connor no doubtedly arrived, he decided to focus on actually planning out what course of action to take, which despite his highly advanced intelligence was quite a task.

He was starting to suspect highly advanced intelligence was actually kind of useless when you were such an indicisive.. idiot. 

_Let him go back? Look after him yourself? Why_? he chided himself. You know nothing. You don't even like him that much. And he'll need food and medicine and-

 _Food_. It must have been far too long since Gavin had eaten. And he was already underweight, and ill.

Glad for something to do, he googled some human food, and then a grocery store, which he had never been to, wondering how expensive things would be there. He did have money - as of February, androids were legally required to receive pay, although they obviously received less than minimum wage, the reason being they didn't need food or health care. 

This was a major grievance to those who had families, or human partners, to provide for. But for Nines, it was fine. Just rent.

**_> GET FOOD_ **

And then he noticed the figure standing on his doorstep. Connor. Obviously. Who else? 

'What is going on with you?' Connor asked immediately, seeming genuinely concerned, as he stepped into the hallway. 'You seem unstable. This-' he gestured to the hallway - 'is unstable. Insane.'

_What happened to hello? How are you?_

'I'm not unstable, Connor,' he replied. 'I'm just.. interested. '

Connor threw out his hands.' What? Interested in what? Reed?'

'Not like that,' he replied hastily.' I just wanted to know.. why he hated me so much. '

'Look,' Connor said, standing closer. 'I understand you have been through a lot. And so has Reed. And you think you have some kind of..reconciliation. But you can't change who he is, Nines! It's illogical!' 

'That is not who he is!' Nines replied agitated. 'He's not really like that, you know! He's just... broken,' he finished. Connor's LED spun yellow.

'And.. you think you can fix him. Or else, your think he can fix you.'

'Not-'

He was nodding, like he'd finished a very complicated puzzle. 'You're just projecting.'

'I am. not.' He didn't even really know what that meant. 

'You are too.'

'I am not!' 

'Stop being childish!' Connor said, throwing his hands up and pressing them into the sides of his head. Then he suddenly stepped back. 

'You know what? I don't care,' he said. 'Just deal with this yourself. I don't care.' 

Then he's gone just as suddenly as he arrived, slamming the door. Nines watched him stiffly walking away through the rain. He has a suspicion Connor does care.

About what, he's unsure. 

_He's irrationally upset about all this._

* * *

Nines went to the grocery store, which was a bit of a nightmare-people seem to lose all rational thought, practically killing each other for random on sale products. 

He didn't know what humans liked to eat. He recalled Gavin eating peanut butter at some point, and deliberated buying coffee, but decided caffeine would probably not be the best idea. 

A confused jumble of purchases, an extremely judgemental cashier who kept talking to him, and he's home. He did rememeber bandages. 

* * *

He stood outside the door for a minute, bracing himself for whatever mood Gavin was going to be in, and entered to find him surprisingly placid, just lying and staring at the ceiling. 

'Hi,' he signed. _Surely that's universal enough._

Gavin looked at him vaguely. 'What's up, Tim Can?' he said, his speech thankfully semi-clear. 

A thought had occurred to Nines, noticing his bloody t-shirt, and he held up the bandages and antiseptic. Probably under-effective, but at least it was something. 

_**I need to check your wound,**_ he showed him on his hand. He didn't say this too often, but thank you, Cyberlife, for one useful ability. 

Gavin blinked like he didn't quite understand. 'What? 

_**Take your shirt off. You are bleeding.** _

'Um, _absolutely not?'_ Gavin, his face colouring slightly.' Get lost, dipshit!'

He looked down at his own chest as if suddenly aware he was bleeding through his shirt.

_**Have you ever heard of septicaemia?** _

'If it's gross, don't tell me about it.'

_**Would you consider a septic infection gross? Where it poisons your blood and leads to sepsis? Where all your organs fail?** _

'I wish _you_ would get sepsis,' Gavin snapped. ' _Fine_.'

He awkwardly tugged his shirt over his head, while Nines looked out the window, satisfied that at least 'embarrasment' was still a prominent emotion he had. Another negative one, but oh well.

The first thing he noticed was that Gavin was a lot thinner than he thought, collarbones sharp. The wound on his chest was almost exactly where the scar he had seen before was, accompanied by a downwards slash this time.

Gavin was pale, deliberately avoiding his eye as he knelt awkwardly to inspect it. Neatly stitched, it seemed fine, no horrible infections or anything, but he had to clean it and rebandage it regardless.

Gavin flinched when he touched it, slapping his hand away.

'Your hands are so fucking cold! What the hell?' he said, still not meeting his eye. Nines made a gesture of apology. His hands weren't cold, it was just that Gavin was much too warm.

_I hate this._

He cleaned the wound and set about bandaging it, seriously considering self-destruction. Gavin was jerking like a marionette everytime he touched him. 

'Well? Have I got sepsis or whatever?' Gavin asked, yanking his filthy shirt back on at practically the speed of sound. Nines didn't have any clothes to offer him-all his shirts were a little too formal.

He was still flushed, and Nines had no doubt if he had blood he'd be just as red as him.

_**No. Not yet,** _Nines replied.

He stood awkwardly for a second, and then left. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello there, general kenobi-  
> >basically this fic is getting LOTR long now so.. might have to cut some character's screen time way down (sorry Connor, he'll still be in it but not so much)  
> >sorry for that awkward ass scene.  
> >I'm gonna start scheduled updates: Wednesday and Saturday :)  
> stay safe, stay swag, leave a comment, sorry for the long note lol<3


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